The true natural check on absolute democracy is the federal system, which limits the central government by the powers reserved, and the state governments by the powers they have ceded.
LORD ACTONThe mills of God grind slowly.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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When the revolutionary theory of government began to prevail, and Church and State found that they were educating for opposite ends and in a contradictory spirit, it became necessary to remove children entirely from the influence of religion.
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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
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The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern … Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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Far from being the product of a democratic revolution and of an opposition to English institutions, the constitution of the United States was the result of a powerful reaction against democracy, and in favor of the traditions of the mother country.
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Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
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The passion for power over others can never cease to threaten mankind, and is always sure of finding new and unforseen allies in continuing its martyrology.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong.
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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
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Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian, neither rich nor poor, and the slave is as good as his master, for by birth all men are free; they are citizens of the universal commonwealth which embraces all the world, brethren of one family, and children of God.
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Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.
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Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power — power sufficient to interfere with property.
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Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
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False principles, which correspond with the bad as well as with the just aspirations of mankind, are a normal and necessary element in the social life of nations.
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If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power…power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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. It is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization; and scarcely a century has passed since nations, that knew the meaning of the term, resolved to be free.
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Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.
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Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.
LORD ACTON