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Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
Torrent
Glide
Carried
River
Gentle
Rivers
Away
Would
Fain

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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.
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Wonderful maxim: not to talk of things any more after they are done.
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An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
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Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
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The false notion of miracles comes of our vanity, which makes us believe we are important enough for the Supreme Being to upset nature on our behalf.
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Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.
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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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Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.
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In the matter of dress one should always keep below one's ability.
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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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I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.
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There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.
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[The Pope] will make the king believe that three are only one, that the bread he eats is not bread... and a thousand other things of the same kind.
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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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That anyone who possesses power has a tendency to abuse it is an eternal truth. They tend to go as far as the barriers will allow.
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An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.
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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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As men are affected in all ages by the same passions, the occasions which bring about great changes are different, but the causes are always the same.
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The severity of the laws prevents their execution.
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Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.
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