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.
LORD ACTONI’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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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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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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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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.
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There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
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Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.
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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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If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
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Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.
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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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The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
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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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In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.
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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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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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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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We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
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Socialism means slavery.
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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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The mills of God grind slowly.
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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.
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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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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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Learn as much by writing as by reading.
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