The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
LORD ACTONThough 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Great men are almost always bad men.
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Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.
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Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.
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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play.
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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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There should be a law to the People besides its own will.
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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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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
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Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
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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.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
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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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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.
LORD ACTON