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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.

Lord Acton

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.
LORD ACTON

Enterprise Good Government Leave Many People Purpose Renounce
Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together.
LORD ACTON

Emna Excellent Good Government Higher Mean Political Reason Together
A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.
LORD ACTON

Account Country Ensalve Generous Powerful Spirit
Every class is unfit to govern.
LORD ACTON

Class Unfit
I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task.
LORD ACTON

Begining Come End Hardly Task Time
Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.
LORD ACTON

Character Conduct Men Personality Sentiment
Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.
LORD ACTON

Democracy Enemy Friend Fruit Liberty Socialism Victory
The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
LORD ACTON

Common Democracy Morality Vice Vices
Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
LORD ACTON

Change Creed Eternity Fail Fall Law Manner Moral Opinion Table Tablet
Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.
LORD ACTON

Age Circumstance Constant Moral Obedient Through
The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
LORD ACTON

Atheism Confound Heart Possession Ultimate Understanding
A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.
LORD ACTON

Convince Differ Honest Liar Men
In every age its progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man’s craving for power, and the poor man’s craving for food.
LORD ACTON

Age Best Conquest Crave Enemies Every Food Ignorance Man Poor Progress
It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
LORD ACTON

Bad Majority Minority Oppress
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.
LORD ACTON

Assign Best Central Club Democracy Federalism Government Power
If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
LORD ACTON

Anxiety Generous Morning Nothing Today Paper

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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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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Popular Authors

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