Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
LORD ACTONGovernment rules the present. Literature rules the future.
LORD ACTONPolitical differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
LORD ACTONA wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
LORD ACTONSocialism means slavery.
LORD ACTONMoral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.
LORD ACTONLiberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.
LORD ACTONOfficial truth is not actual truth.
LORD ACTONWhen the last of the Reformers died, religion, instead of emancipating the nations, had become an excuse for the criminal art of despots. Calvin preached, and Bellarmine lectured; but Machiavelli reigned.
LORD ACTONWhen 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.
LORD ACTONThere are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.
LORD ACTONA liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
LORD ACTONThe possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
LORD ACTONLiberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
LORD ACTONPiety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.
LORD ACTONWe are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
LORD ACTONA convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.
LORD ACTON