If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power…power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
LORD ACTONThough 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
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The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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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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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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Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
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The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
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A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.
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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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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.
LORD ACTON






