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.
LORD ACTONEvery thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
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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.
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Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.
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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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But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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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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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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The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.
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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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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
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