Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end…liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition…
LORD ACTONIf some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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. 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.
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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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I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
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Every class is unfit to govern.
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Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
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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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Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.
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Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.
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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
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Socialism means slavery.
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When the revolutionary theory of government began to prevail, and Church and State found that they were educating for opposite ends and in a contradictory spirit, it became necessary to remove children entirely from the influence of religion.
LORD ACTON