Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
LORD ACTONWhen the revolutionary theory of government began to prevail, and Church and State found that they were educating for opposite ends and in a contradictory spirit, it became necessary to remove children entirely from the influence of religion.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
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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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Official truth is not actual truth.
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If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
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In every age its (liberty’s) 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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Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.
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Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.
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We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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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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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
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Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.
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Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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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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Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
LORD ACTON






