History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
LORD ACTONIn 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
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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.
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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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 minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.
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But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
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Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.
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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 finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion of equality made vain the hope for freedom.
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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
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The mills of God grind slowly.
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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom
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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.
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Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.
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Learn as much by writing as by reading.
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Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.
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Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
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Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.
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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
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When the revolutionary theory of government began to prevail, and Church and State found that they were educating for opposite ends and in a contradictory spirit, it became necessary to remove children entirely from the influence of religion.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
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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.
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