Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power — power sufficient to interfere with property.
LORD ACTONPower tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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.
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Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.
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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power…power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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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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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects often differed from their own; and this association, which is always dangerous, has sometimes been disastrous.
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Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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False 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.
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The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
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Official truth is not actual truth.
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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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Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
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Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.
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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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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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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
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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
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The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
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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.
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