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 ACTONFeudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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Learn as much by writing as by reading.
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In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.
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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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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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The finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion of equality made vain the hope for freedom.
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There should be a law to the People besides its own will.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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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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There are many things the government cant do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people. It cannot convert the people.
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Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
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Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
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For centuries it was never discovered that education was a function of the State, and the State never attempted to educate.
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A 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.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.
LORD ACTON