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The people fall into this misfortune when those to whom they entrust themselves, wanting to hide their own corruption, seek to corrupt the people. To keep the people from seeing their own ambition, they speak only of the people’s greatness; to keep the people from perceiving their avarice, they constantly encourage that of the people.
 Montesquieu, The Spirit of Law (1748). copy citation

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Author Montesquieu
Source The Spirit of Law
Topic greatness corruption
Date 1748
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Anne M. Cohler, Basia Carolyn Miller and Harold Samuel Stone
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