Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
LORD ACTONHistory, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.
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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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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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We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
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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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I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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False principles, which correspond with the bad as well as with the just aspirations of mankind, are a normal and necessary element in the social life of nations.
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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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In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.
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A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom
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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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Democracy generally monopolizes and concentrates power.
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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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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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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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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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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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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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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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I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong.
LORD ACTON