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.
LORD ACTONWhen you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.
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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
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Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.
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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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Every class is unfit to govern.
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Socialism means slavery.
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Democracy generally monopolizes and concentrates power.
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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
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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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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
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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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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.
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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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Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.
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Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.
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A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.
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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end…liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition…
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Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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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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There should be a law to the People besides its own will.
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