Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.
LORD ACTONA public man has no right to let his actions be determined by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not what is advantageous to a party or class.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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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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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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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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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.
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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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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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Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.
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Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
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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
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Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
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Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules 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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Learn as much by writing as by reading.
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We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
LORD ACTON