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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.

Lord Acton

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
A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom
LORD ACTON

Element First Freedom People Private Property
Democracy generally monopolizes and concentrates power.
LORD ACTON

Concentration Democracy Generally Monopolize Power
When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
LORD ACTON

Balance Look Perceive Truth
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
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
A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
LORD ACTON

Both Different Fool Last Once Person Same Time Wise
Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.
LORD ACTON

Almost Always Authority Great Influence Men Stillmore
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
. 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.
LORD ACTON

Century Civilization Delicate Free Mature Mean Nation Pass Resolve Scarcely Since Term
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

Bank Century Down Issue People Sooner Swept
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 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

Bnaturem Check Central Democracy Government Limit Power Reserve Stage True
Far from being the product of a democratic revolution and of an opposition to English institutions, the constitution of the United States was the result of a powerful reaction against democracy, and in favor of the traditions of the mother country.
LORD ACTON

Constitution Country Institution Mother Powerful Product Result Revolution State
Great men are almost always bad men.
LORD ACTON

Corrupt Great Men Power
The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
LORD ACTON

Atheism Confound Heart Possession Ultimate Understanding

Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.

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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.

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