But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
LORD ACTONThe 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Great men are almost always bad men.
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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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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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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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If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.
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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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A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom
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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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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
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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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Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together.
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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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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
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Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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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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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
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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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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
LORD ACTON