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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.

Lord Acton

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.
LORD ACTON

Art Criminal Despot Die Emancipate Excuse Last Nation Preacher Reformer
The principle of the Inquisition was murderous. . . . The popes were not only murderers in the great style, but they also made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and a condition of salvation.
LORD ACTON

Christian Murderous Principle Religion Style
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.
LORD ACTON

Clas Class Danger Every Govern Particular Unfit
Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
LORD ACTON

Administration Different Discussion Justice Political Publicity Reality
The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
LORD ACTON

Liberty Minorities Security Test
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 ACTON

Age Best Conquest Crave Enemies Every Food Ignorance Man Poor Progress
I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
LORD ACTON

Beautiful Business Funny Inspirational Money
I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task.
LORD ACTON

Begining Come End Hardly Task Time
Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.
LORD ACTON

Both Future Live Past
The mills of God grind slowly.
LORD ACTON

Exactness God Grind Mill Retribution
The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.
LORD ACTON

Gold Grainm Stream Knowledge Past Politics River Rivers Sand Science
Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.
LORD ACTON

Control Liberty Other Prevention
Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power — power sufficient to interfere with property.
LORD ACTON

Accepting Deposition Execution Power Requires Socialism Strongest Sufficient
Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.
LORD ACTON

Doe End Justify Mean Other
For centuries it was never discovered that education was a function of the State, and the State never attempted to educate.
LORD ACTON

Absolutism Attempt Century Children Discover Function Government Modern Opposite State
Progress, the religion of those who have none.
LORD ACTON

None Progress Religion

No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.

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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.

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