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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.

Lord Acton

A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
LORD ACTON

Bundles Experience Master Philosophy Prejudice Understand
Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
LORD ACTON

Change Creed Eternity Fail Fall Law Manner Moral Opinion Table Tablet
There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
LORD ACTON

Habit Mind More Perilous Sanctifying Succes
A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom
LORD ACTON

Element First Freedom People Private Property
Democracy generally monopolizes and concentrates power.
LORD ACTON

Concentration Democracy Generally Monopolize Power
There are many things the government cant do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people. It cannot convert the people.
LORD ACTON

Enterprise Good Government Leave Many People Purpose Renounce
I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task.
LORD ACTON

Begining Come End Hardly Task Time
Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
LORD ACTON

Alliances Dogma Fanaticism Passion Professes Religious
Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
LORD ACTON

Authority Essential Limitation
Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
LORD ACTON

Before Generous Justice Mercy Temper
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.
LORD ACTON

Concentration Control Frequently Hand Men Mentality Peace Power Remember
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
LORD ACTON

Ago Bad Common Crime Good Ignorance Liberty Men Next Pretext Seed Sow Strong Year
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.
LORD ACTON

Assign Best Central Club Democracy Federalism Government Power
The true guide of our conduct is no outward authority, but the voice of God, who comes down to dwell in our souls, who knows all our thoughts, to whom are owing all the truth we know, and all the good we do; for vice is voluntary, and virtue comes from the grace of the heavenly spirit within.
LORD ACTON

Come Conduct Down God Grace Guide Know Our Outward Soul Voice
I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong.
LORD ACTON

Accept Do Favorable Judge King Men Pope Power Presumption Unlike Wrong
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.
LORD ACTON

Christian Murderous Principle Religion Style

When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.

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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.

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