History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
LORD ACTONLiberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.
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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.
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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
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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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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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There should be a law to the People besides its own will.
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In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.
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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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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.
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If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.
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When 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.
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In every age its 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 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 long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
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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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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
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