Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.
LORD ACTONMen cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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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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Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.
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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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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
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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 the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.
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Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.
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Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.
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Though oppression may give rise to violent and repeated outbreaks, like the convulsions of a man in pain, it cannot mature a settled purpose and plan of regeneration, unless a new notion of happiness is joined to the sense of present evil.
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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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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
LORD ACTON