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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.

Lord Acton

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Lord Acton
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The light that has guided us is still unquenched, and the causes that have carried us so far in the van of free nations have not spent their power because the story of the future is written in the past, and that which hath been is the same thing that shall be.
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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.
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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 is the arbiter of controversy, the monarch of all she surveys.
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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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I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. 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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From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.
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Liberty is the harmony between the will and the law.
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It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.
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