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.
LORD ACTONProgress, the religion of those who have none.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together.
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Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
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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 is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
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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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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects often differed from their own; and this association, which is always dangerous, has sometimes been disastrous.
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Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
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I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
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Though oppression may give rise to violent and repeated outbreaks, like the convulsions of a man in pain, it cannot mature a settled purpose and plan of regeneration, unless a new notion of happiness is joined to the sense of present evil.
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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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The true guide of our conduct is no outward authority, but the voice of God, who comes down to dwell in our souls, who knows all our thoughts, to whom are owing all the truth we know, and all the good we do; for vice is voluntary, and virtue comes from the grace of the heavenly spirit within.
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The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
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Democracy generally monopolizes and concentrates power.
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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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Every class is unfit to govern.
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The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.
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Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.
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Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.
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Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.
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Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
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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 ACTON