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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.

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 issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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Though oppression may give rise to violent and repeated outbreaks, like the convulsions of a man in pain, it cannot mature a settled purpose and plan of regeneration, unless a new notion of happiness is joined to the sense of present evil.
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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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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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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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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.
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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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The form of government and the condition of society must always correspond. Social equality is therefore a postulate of pure democracy.
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Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
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A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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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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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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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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The true natural check on absolute democracy is the federal system, which limits the central government by the powers reserved, and the state governments by the powers they have ceded.
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I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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