When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
LORD ACTONDespotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
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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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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.
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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
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In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.
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Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
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But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
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If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
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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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The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.
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Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power — power sufficient to interfere with property.
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We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
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The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
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There should be a law to the People besides its own will.
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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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