The passion for power over others can never cease to threaten mankind, and is always sure of finding new and unforseen allies in continuing its martyrology.
LORD ACTONThere is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
More Lord Acton Quotes
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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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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Every class is unfit to govern.
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False principles, which correspond with the bad as well as with the just aspirations of mankind, are a normal and necessary element in the social life of nations.
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Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice.
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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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From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…
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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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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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Far from being the product of a democratic revolution and of an opposition to English institutions, the constitution of the United States was the result of a powerful reaction against democracy, and in favor of the traditions of the mother country.
LORD ACTON