Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
LORD ACTONLimitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
LORD ACTONThe common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
LORD ACTONThe minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
LORD ACTONWhen 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 ACTONThe one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
LORD ACTONThere should be a law to the People besides its own will.
LORD ACTONJudge talent at its best and character at its worst.
LORD ACTONA wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
LORD ACTONAt 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 ACTONPower tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
LORD ACTONA people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom
LORD ACTONLearn as much by writing as by reading.
LORD ACTONWe are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
LORD ACTONMoral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.
LORD ACTONWhen you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
LORD ACTONOpinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
LORD ACTON