But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power….
LORD ACTONLive both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
LORD ACTON -
In every age its (liberty’s) 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
LORD ACTON -
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.
LORD ACTON -
When the last of the Reformers died, religion, instead of emancipating the nations, had become an excuse for the criminal art of despots. Calvin preached, and Bellarmine lectured; but Machiavelli reigned.
LORD ACTON -
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
LORD ACTON -
There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
LORD ACTON -
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern … Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
LORD ACTON -
Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
LORD ACTON -
If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.
LORD ACTON -
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 -
The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
LORD ACTON -
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.
LORD ACTON -
From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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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.
LORD ACTON -
There should be a law to the People besides its own will.
LORD ACTON