People here argue about religion interminably, but it appears that they are competing at the same time to see who can be the least devout.
Baron de MontesquieuThe public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.
Baron de MontesquieuThe state is the association of men, and not men themselves; the citizen may perish, and the man remain.
Baron de Montesquieu[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.
Baron de MontesquieuVanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous. To be convinced of this we need only represent, on the one hand,the numberless benefits which result from vanity, as industry, the arts, fashions, politeness, and taste; and on the other, the infinite evils which spring from the pride of certain nations, a laziness, poverty, a total neglect of everything.
Baron de MontesquieuIt 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.
Baron de Montesquieu