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.
LORD ACTONAt all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects often differed from their own; and this association, which is always dangerous, has sometimes been disastrous.
More Lord Acton Quotes
-
-
Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together.
LORD ACTON -
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.
LORD ACTON -
There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
LORD ACTON -
. 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.
LORD ACTON -
Socialism means slavery.
LORD ACTON -
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.
LORD ACTON -
Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
LORD ACTON -
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 ACTON -
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
LORD ACTON -
The minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
LORD ACTON -
A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom
LORD ACTON -
We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
LORD ACTON -
Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
LORD ACTON -
Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
LORD ACTON -
History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
LORD ACTON






