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Vanity and pride of nations vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
Government
Advantageous
Vanity
Pride
Dangerous
Nations

More quotes by Baron de Montesquieu

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Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.
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The wickedness of mankind makes it necessary for the law to suppose them better than they really are.
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With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.
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Love of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy love of the democracy is that of equality. Love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality.
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No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.
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I should like to abolish funerals the time to mourn a person is at his birth, not his death.
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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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I suffer from the disease of writing books and being ashamed of them when they are finished.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Honor sets all the parts of the body politic in motion, and by its very action connects them thus each individual advances the public good, while he only thinks of promoting his own interest.
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Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest.
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Mediocrity is a hand-rail.
Baron de Montesquieu
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The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.
Baron de Montesquieu
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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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...when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Trade is the best cure for prejudice.
Baron de Montesquieu
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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
Baron de Montesquieu
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What cowardice it is to be dismayed by the happiness of others and devastated by there good fortune.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Vitam Impendere Vero (I consecrate my life to truth).
Baron de Montesquieu
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Political liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and in order for him to have this liberty the government must be such that one citizen cannot fear another citizen.
Baron de Montesquieu