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.
LORD ACTONThose who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian, neither rich nor poor, and the slave is as good as his master, for by birth all men are free; they are citizens of the universal commonwealth which embraces all the world, brethren of one family, and children of God.
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Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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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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False principles, which correspond with the bad as well as with the just aspirations of mankind, are a normal and necessary element in the social life of nations.
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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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Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.
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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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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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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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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, 2,460 years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race
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But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
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The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
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Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
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I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task.
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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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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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There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
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The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
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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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Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
LORD ACTON