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We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.

Lord Acton

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If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.
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Emancipation Safest Surest
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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Assign Best Central Club Federalism
Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.
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Ink Inverted Real
History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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Disputes Document Evasion
Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
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Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.

LORD ACTON

Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
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Before Generous Temper
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 ACTON

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 ACTON

Down Grace Know Our Outward
It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.

LORD ACTON

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
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Majority Minority Oppress
Learn as much by writing as by reading.

LORD ACTON

Learn as much by writing as by reading.
LORD ACTON

Learn Much Raed
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.
LORD ACTON

All Free Neither Salve
The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.
LORD ACTON

Grainm Stream Rivers Sand
Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together.

LORD ACTON

Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together.
LORD ACTON

Emna Excellent Higher Mean Political Together
But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….

LORD ACTON

But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
LORD ACTON

Absolutism Behalf Claim Everything Laid Modern Sovereign
Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
LORD ACTON

Judging
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.
LORD ACTON

Best Conquest Enemies Every
Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.

LORD ACTON

Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.
LORD ACTON

Both

We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.

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