The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.
LORD ACTONGreat men are almost always bad men.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.
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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.
LORD ACTON -
The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
LORD ACTON -
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.
LORD ACTON -
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.
LORD ACTON -
The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
LORD ACTON -
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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But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
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Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.
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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.
LORD ACTON -
Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
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The minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
LORD ACTON -
I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong.
LORD ACTON