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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.

Lord Acton

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
Every class is unfit to govern.
LORD ACTON

Class Unfit
Great men are almost always bad men.
LORD ACTON

Corrupt Great Men Power
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
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

All Birth Children Citizen Country Free God Good Master Men Neither Poor Salve
No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
LORD ACTON

Character Correspondance Public Revelation Stood Utterance
Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
LORD ACTON

Bad Easily Good Made Men State
A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.
LORD ACTON

Convince Differ Honest Liar Men
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
The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
LORD ACTON

Liberty Minorities Security Test
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.
LORD ACTON

Aspiration Correspond Element Just Life Mankind Normal Principles Social
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.
LORD ACTON

Associate Association Country Friend Minorities Person Racem People Sincere Themselves Time Triumph
Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
LORD ACTON

Always Corruption Despotic Morality Power
Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
LORD ACTON

Future Government Literature Present Rule
The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
LORD ACTON

Atheism Confound Heart Possession Ultimate Understanding
It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play.
LORD ACTON

Majority Minorities Oppressed People Play Worse

Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.

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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.

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Popular Authors

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