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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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Baron de Montesquieu
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More quotes by 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.
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I never listen to calumnies, because if they are untrue I run the risk of being deceived, and if they be true, of hating persons not worth thinking about.
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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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There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.
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Republics come to an end by luxurious habits monarchies by poverty.
Baron de Montesquieu
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To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.
Baron de Montesquieu
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I have ever held it as a maxim never to do that through another which it was impossible for me to execute myself
Baron de Montesquieu
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Virtue in a republic is the love of one's country, that is the love of equality.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.
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Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.
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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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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Mediocrity is a hand-rail.
Baron de Montesquieu
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A rational army would run away.
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Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.
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When a government lasts a long while, it deteriorates by insensible degrees. Republics end through luxury, monarchies through poverty.
Baron de Montesquieu
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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.
Baron de Montesquieu
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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.
Baron de Montesquieu
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I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.
Baron de Montesquieu
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The love of study is in us the only lasting passion. All the others quit us in proportion as this miserable machine which holds them approaches its ruins.
Baron de Montesquieu