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The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.

Lord Acton

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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities, such as More, Bacon, Grotius, Pascal, Cromwell, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Napoleon, Pitt, etc. The result would be an Encyclopedia of Error.
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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
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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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It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.
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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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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.
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Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.
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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.
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And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.
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The reward of history is that it releases and relieves us from present strife.
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If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.
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Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power -- power sufficient to interfere with property.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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Fanaticism displays itself in the masses but the masses were rarely fanaticised and the crimes ascribed to it were commonly due to the calculations of dispassionate politicians.
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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
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If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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