When the last of the Reformers died, religion, instead of emancipating the nations, had become an excuse for the criminal art of despots. Calvin preached, and Bellarmine lectured; but Machiavelli reigned.
LORD ACTONAt 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.
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A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.
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Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.
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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 long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
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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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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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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
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There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.
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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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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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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 is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.
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