Quote

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.

Lord Acton

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Lord Acton
Memories
History
Soul
Illumination
Burden
Memory

More quotes by Lord Acton

Image
The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.
Lord Acton
Image
A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.
Lord Acton
Image
Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
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 Acton
Image
Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
Lord Acton
Image
In every age its (liberty's) progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food
Lord Acton
Image
Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.
Lord Acton
Image
If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.
Lord Acton
Image
Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
Lord Acton
Image
It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
Lord Acton
Image
From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
Lord Acton
Image
The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
The principle of the Inquisition was murderous. . . . The popes were not only murderers in the great style, but they also made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and a condition of salvation.
Lord Acton
Image
History is the arbiter of controversy, the monarch of all she surveys.
Lord Acton
Image
Progress, the religion of those who have none.
Lord Acton
Image
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Lord Acton