Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
LORD ACTONThe 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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.
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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
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The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
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In 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.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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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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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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From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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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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A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.
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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.
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Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian, neither rich nor poor, and the slave is as good as his master, for by birth all men are free; they are citizens of the universal commonwealth which embraces all the world, brethren of one family, and children of God.
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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
LORD ACTON