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 ACTONLiberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
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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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Learn as much by writing as by reading.
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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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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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Official truth is not actual truth.
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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
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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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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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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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The minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.
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Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
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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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For centuries it was never discovered that education was a function of the State, and the State never attempted to educate.
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
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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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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
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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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In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.
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I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
LORD ACTON