Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
LORD ACTONIf some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
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Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
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If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power…power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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The finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion of equality made vain the hope for freedom.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
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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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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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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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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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