Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
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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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Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian, neither rich nor poor, and the slave is as good as his master, for by birth all men are free; they are citizens of the universal commonwealth which embraces all the world, brethren of one family, and children of God.
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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.
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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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In every age its (liberty’s) 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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The passion for power over others can never cease to threaten mankind, and is always sure of finding new and unforseen allies in continuing its martyrology.
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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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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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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.
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Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.
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Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
LORD ACTON