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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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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
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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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The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.
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Liberty is the harmony between the will and the law.
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The fate of every democracy, of every government based on the sovereignty of the people, depends on the choices it makes between these opposite principles, absolute power on the one hand, and on the other the restraints of legality and the authority of tradition.
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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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The few have not strength to achieve great changes unaided the many have not wisdom to be moved by truth unmixed.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
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