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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.

Lord Acton

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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.
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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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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.
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And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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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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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
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Fanaticism displays itself in the masses but the masses were rarely fanaticised and the crimes ascribed to it were commonly due to the calculations of dispassionate politicians.
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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 State is competent to assign duties and draw the line between good and evil only in its immediate sphere. Beyond the limits of things necessary for its well-being, it can only give indirect help to fight the battle of life by promoting the influences which prevail against temptation--religion, education, and the distribution of wealth.
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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
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Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.
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Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
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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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Official truth is not actual truth.
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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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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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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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