Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
LORD ACTONIt is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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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Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
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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.
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At 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.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power…power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.
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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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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
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There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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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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Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.
LORD ACTON