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The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
Succession
Hopes
Fears
Vain
Men
Life
Groundless

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Solemnity is the shield of idiots
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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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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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There is a very good saying that if triangles invented a god, they would make him three-sided.
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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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The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.
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Sometimes a man who deserves to be looked upon because he is a fool is despised only because he is a lawyer.
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The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.
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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 a government lasts a long while, it deteriorates by insensible degrees. Republics end through luxury, monarchies through poverty.
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We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.
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When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.
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Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.
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Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.
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Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.
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Power ought to serve as a check to power.
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Man is a social animal formed to please in society.
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