Quote

By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes to be his duty against the influences of authority and majorities, custom and opinion.

Lord Acton

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Lord Acton
Justice
Atheism
Majorities
Culture
Majority
Custom
Mean
Authority
Influences
Every
Duty
Assurance
Believe
Influence
Customs
Men
Liberty
Protected
Shall
Believes
Opinion
Diversity

More quotes by Lord Acton

Image
History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
Lord Acton
Image
Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.
Lord Acton
Image
The few have not strength to achieve great changes unaided the many have not wisdom to be moved by truth unmixed.
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 strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
Lord Acton
Image
History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
Lord Acton
Image
Progress, the religion of those who have none.
Lord Acton
Image
There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.
Lord Acton
Image
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Lord Acton
Image
If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
Lord Acton
Image
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
Lord Acton
Image
Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power -- power sufficient to interfere with property.
Lord Acton
Image
Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
Lord Acton
Image
Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
Lord Acton
Image
A government does not desire its powers to be strictly defined, but the subjects require the line to be drawn with increasing precision.
Lord Acton
Image
Every error pronounces judgment on itself when it attempts to apply its rules to the standard of truth.
Lord Acton
Image
At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
Lord Acton
Image
The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class. It is not the realisation of a political ideal: it is the discharge of a moral obligation.
Lord Acton
Image
We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
Lord Acton
Image
Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
Lord Acton