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When a government is arrived to that degree of corruption as to be incapable of reforming itself, it would not lose much by being new moulded.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
Government
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Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the political and civil laws of each nation ought to be only the particular cases in which human reason is applied.
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No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.
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Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
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If I knew something that would serve my country but would harm mankind, I would never reveal it for I am a citizen of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of France second, and only by accident
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Wonderful maxim: not to talk of things any more after they are done.
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The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind.
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It is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.
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The spirit of commerce... renders every man willing to live on his own property...& prevents the growth of luxury.
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In the state of nature... all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.
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We ought to be very cautious and circumspect in the prosecution of magic and heresy. The attempt to put down these two crimes may be extremely perilous to liberty.
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What cowardice it is to be dismayed by the happiness of others and devastated by there good fortune.
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...when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.
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There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window.
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In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.
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If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.
Baron de Montesquieu
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As virtue is necessary in a republic, and honor in a monarchy, fear is what is required in a despotism. As for virtue, it is not at all necessary, and honor would be dangerous there.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Virtue in a republic is the love of one's country, that is the love of equality.
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Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.
Baron de Montesquieu
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The Christian religion is a stranger to mere despotic power. The mildness so frequently recommended in the Gospel is incompatible with the despotic rage.
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Better it is to say that the government most comfortable to nature is that which best agrees with the humor and disposition of the people in whose favor it is established.
Baron de Montesquieu