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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.

Lord Acton

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Lord Acton
Friends
Freedom
Triumphs
Times
Minorities
Sincere
Dues
Rare
Triumph
Liberty

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It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.
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If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.
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A government does not desire its powers to be strictly defined, but the subjects require the line to be drawn with increasing precision.
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Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.
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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
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Remember that one touch of ill-nature makes the whole world kin.
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Property is not the sacred right. When a rich man becomes poor it is a misfortune, it is not a moral evil. When a poor man becomes destitute, it is a moral evil, teeming with consequences and injurious to society and morality.
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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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Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.
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If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
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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.
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Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.
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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.
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There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.
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Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
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The wisdom of divine rule appears not in the perfection but in the improvement of the world... History is the true demonstration of Religion.
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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 idea that the object of constitutions is not to confirm the predominance of any interest, but to prevent it to preserve with equal care the independence of labour and the security of property to make the rich safe against envy, and the poor against oppression, marks the highest level attained by the statesmanship of Greece.
Lord Acton