A public man has no right to let his actions be determined by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not what is advantageous to a party or class.
LORD ACTONGreat 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
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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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There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
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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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The mills of God grind slowly.
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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.
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There are many things the government cant do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people. It cannot convert the people.
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Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.
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Every class is unfit to govern.
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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
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There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.
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Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.
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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.
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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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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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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
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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.
LORD ACTON