Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
LORD ACTONEvery class is unfit to govern.
More Lord Acton Quotes
-
-
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 -
The true natural check on absolute democracy is the federal system, which limits the central government by the powers reserved, and the state governments by the powers they have ceded.
LORD ACTON -
Progress, the religion of those who have none.
LORD ACTON -
Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, 2,460 years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race
LORD ACTON -
It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
LORD ACTON -
Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
LORD ACTON -
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
LORD ACTON -
Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian, neither rich nor poor, and the slave is as good as his master, for by birth all men are free; they are citizens of the universal commonwealth which embraces all the world, brethren of one family, and children of God.
LORD ACTON -
The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
LORD ACTON -
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 -
Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.
LORD ACTON -
Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.
LORD ACTON -
Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power — power sufficient to interfere with property.
LORD ACTON -
History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
LORD ACTON -
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
LORD ACTON