History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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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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.
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A public man has no right to let his actions be determined by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not what is advantageous to a party or class.
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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.
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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.
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Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
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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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Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together.
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Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.
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Every class is unfit to govern.
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There should be a law to the People besides its own will.
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For centuries it was never discovered that education was a function of the State, and the State never attempted to educate.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end…liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition…
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
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Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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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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The mills of God grind slowly.
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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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