The finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion of equality made vain the hope for freedom.
LORD ACTONBe generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.
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Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
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And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.
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If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
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Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
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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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The principle of the Inquisition was murderous. . . . The popes were not only murderers in the great style, but they also made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and a condition of salvation.
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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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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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. It is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization; and scarcely a century has passed since nations, that knew the meaning of the term, resolved to be free.
LORD ACTON