No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
LORD ACTONThe 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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There should be a law to the People besides its own will.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.
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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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There are many things the government cant do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people. It cannot convert the people.
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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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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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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
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Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.
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Official truth is not actual truth.
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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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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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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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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
LORD ACTON