Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.
LORD ACTONBefore 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.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.
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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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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
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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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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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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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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.
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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.
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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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Socialism means slavery.
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We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
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Every class is unfit to govern.
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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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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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.
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Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.
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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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Learn as much by writing as by reading.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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Official truth is not actual truth.
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