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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.

Lord Acton

Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.
LORD ACTON

Birth Directed Faith Giving Knowledge Piety Scruple Sometimes Superstition Wisdom
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

Absolute Appear Entire Minority People Redemption Resist Seldom Treason
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
A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
LORD ACTON

Bundles Experience Master Philosophy Prejudice Understand
Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.
LORD ACTON

Doe End Justify Mean Other
Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
LORD ACTON

Aristocracy Contract Democracy Fanaticism Number Religious
The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
LORD ACTON

Dagger Follow Future Men Past Strong Weak
Progress, the religion of those who have none.
LORD ACTON

None Progress Religion
The mills of God grind slowly.
LORD ACTON

Exactness God Grind Mill Retribution
But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
LORD ACTON

Absolutism Behalf Claim Everything Laid Modern Power Sovereign
Though oppression may give rise to violent and repeated outbreaks, like the convulsions of a man in pain, it cannot mature a settled purpose and plan of regeneration, unless a new notion of happiness is joined to the sense of present evil.
LORD ACTON

Convulsion Evil Give Man Men Oppression Outbreak Pain Purpose Repeat Settle Violent
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.
LORD ACTON

Allies Always Cease Continue Mankind Passion Power Sure Threaten Unforeseen
We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
LORD ACTON

Case Made Possible Sure Thing Wrong
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 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
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

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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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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Popular Authors

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