black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

Lord Acton

Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
LORD ACTON

Authority Essential Limitation
Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
LORD ACTON

Bad Easily Good Made Men State
The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
LORD ACTON

Atheism Confound Heart Possession Ultimate Understanding
To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
LORD ACTON

Achievement Conscience Develop Great History Perfect
Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.
LORD ACTON

Express Feeling Ink Inverted Real
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…
LORD ACTON

Benefit Class Higher Liberty Mean Men Political
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern … Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
LORD ACTON

Alike Almost Benefit Danger End Mne Object Particular Political
But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
LORD ACTON

Absolutism Behalf Claim Everything Laid Modern Power Sovereign
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
LORD ACTON

Ignorance Liberty Progress Strong Superstition Wisdom
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.
LORD ACTON

Clas Class Danger Every Govern Particular Unfit
I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task.
LORD ACTON

Begining Come End Hardly Task Time
The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.
LORD ACTON

Make People Power Unjust Will
History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
LORD ACTON

Burden History Illumination Memories Soul
The minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
LORD ACTON

Absolute Appear Entire Minority People Redemption Resist Seldom Treason
Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
LORD ACTON

Change Creed Eternity Fail Fall Law Manner Moral Opinion Table Tablet
Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.
LORD ACTON

Atheism Certain Geometry More Power Sin Theorem

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Lord Acton Quotes