Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
LORD ACTONBut when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
More Lord Acton Quotes
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The 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.
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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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The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.
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A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.
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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.
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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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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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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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In every age its progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man’s craving for power, and the poor man’s craving for food.
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
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There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.
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In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.
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From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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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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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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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, 2,460 years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race
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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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The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.
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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.
LORD ACTON