It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
LORD ACTONTruth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
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A public man has no right to let his actions be determined by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not what is advantageous to a party or class.
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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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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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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
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The mills of God grind slowly.
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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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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play.
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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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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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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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Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
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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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. It is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization; and scarcely a century has passed since nations, that knew the meaning of the term, resolved to be free.
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Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.
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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
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The principle of the Inquisition was murderous. . . . The popes were not only murderers in the great style, but they also made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and a condition of salvation.
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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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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
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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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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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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
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The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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