Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.
LORD ACTONAuthority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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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Learn as much by writing as by reading.
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Though oppression may give rise to violent and repeated outbreaks, like the convulsions of a man in pain, it cannot mature a settled purpose and plan of regeneration, unless a new notion of happiness is joined to the sense of present evil.
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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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Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.
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Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together.
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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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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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There are many things the government cant do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people. It cannot convert the people.
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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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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, 2,460 years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race
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A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom
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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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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
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Socialism means slavery.
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Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
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The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
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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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A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
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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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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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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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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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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
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