The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.
LORD ACTONFalse principles, which correspond with the bad as well as with the just aspirations of mankind, are a normal and necessary element in the social life of nations.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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There 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.
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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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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
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In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.
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The finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion of equality made vain the hope for freedom.
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Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.
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I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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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…liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition…
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Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.
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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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Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
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A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.
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Far from being the product of a democratic revolution and of an opposition to English institutions, the constitution of the United States was the result of a powerful reaction against democracy, and in favor of the traditions of the mother country.
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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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And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.
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There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
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The mills of God grind slowly.
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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
LORD ACTON