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Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.

Lord Acton

Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.
LORD ACTON

Birth Directed Faith Giving Knowledge Piety Scruple Sometimes Superstition Wisdom
It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
LORD ACTON

Bad Majority Minority Oppress
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
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 possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
LORD ACTON

Atheism Confound Heart Possession Ultimate Understanding
. It is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization; and scarcely a century has passed since nations, that knew the meaning of the term, resolved to be free.
LORD ACTON

Century Civilization Delicate Free Mature Mean Nation Pass Resolve Scarcely Since Term
Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
LORD ACTON

Authority Essential Limitation
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

Convulsion Evil Give Man Men Oppression Outbreak Pain Purpose Repeat Settle Violent
For centuries it was never discovered that education was a function of the State, and the State never attempted to educate.
LORD ACTON

Absolutism Attempt Century Children Discover Function Government Modern Opposite State
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

Art Criminal Despot Die Emancipate Excuse Last Nation Preacher Reformer
Liberty is the prevention of control by others.
LORD ACTON

Control Liberty Other Prevention
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.
LORD ACTON

All Birth Children Citizen Country Free God Good Master Men Neither Poor Salve
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.
LORD ACTON

Gold Grainm Stream Knowledge Past Politics River Rivers Sand Science
At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects often differed from their own; and this association, which is always dangerous, has sometimes been disastrous.
LORD ACTON

Associate Association Country Friend Minorities Person Racem People Sincere Themselves Time Triumph
A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
LORD ACTON

Both Different Fool Last Once Person Same Time Wise
The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.
LORD ACTON

Make People Power Unjust Will

Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.

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Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.

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