Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
LORD ACTONLiberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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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If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power…power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Great men are almost always bad men.
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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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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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I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task.
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A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
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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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A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.
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A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom
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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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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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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
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