A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.
LORD ACTONThe 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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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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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
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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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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
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The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern … Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
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There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
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. It is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization; and scarcely a century has passed since nations, that knew the meaning of the term, resolved to be free.
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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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Democracy generally monopolizes and concentrates power.
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Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.
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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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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
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From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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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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A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom
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The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
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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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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
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When the last of the Reformers died, religion, instead of emancipating the nations, had become an excuse for the criminal art of despots. Calvin preached, and Bellarmine lectured; but Machiavelli reigned.
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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
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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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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
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