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At our coming into the world we contract an immense debt to our country, which we can never discharge.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
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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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Mediocrity is a hand-rail.
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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.
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A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.
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It is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is lessneed of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.
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Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.
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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 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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Honor is unknown in despotic states.
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No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.
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There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines they feel.
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An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
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When the savages of Louisiana wish to have fruit, they cut the tree at the bottom and gather the fruit. That is exactly a despotic government.
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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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Great commanders write their actions with simplicity because they receive more glory from facts than from words.
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Solemnity is the shield of idiots
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When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.
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The state is the association of men, and not men themselves the citizen may perish, and the man remain.
Baron de Montesquieu
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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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The power of divorce can be given only to those who feel the inconveniences of marriage, and who are sensible of the moment when it is for their interest to make them cease.
Baron de Montesquieu