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 ACTONFar 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power — power sufficient to interfere with property.
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In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
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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 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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The mills of God grind slowly.
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Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.
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The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.
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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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Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together.
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Official truth is not actual truth.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
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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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The true guide of our conduct is no outward authority, but the voice of God, who comes down to dwell in our souls, who knows all our thoughts, to whom are owing all the truth we know, and all the good we do; for vice is voluntary, and virtue comes from the grace of the heavenly spirit within.
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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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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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A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.
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A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.
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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
LORD ACTON