Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
LORD ACTONThe 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.
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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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I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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Socialism means slavery.
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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 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.
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
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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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The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern … Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
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When the revolutionary theory of government began to prevail, and Church and State found that they were educating for opposite ends and in a contradictory spirit, it became necessary to remove children entirely from the influence of religion.
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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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But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
LORD ACTON






