Quote

Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.

Lord Acton

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Lord Acton
Fruit
Conquers
Victory
Victories
Democracy
Fruits
Liberty
Socialism
Enemy
Conquer
Friends
Enemies
Absolutes
Absolute
Perfidious

More quotes by Lord Acton

Image
I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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
The reward of history is that it releases and relieves us from present strife.
Lord Acton
Image
History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
Lord Acton
Image
A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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
To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
Lord Acton
Image
It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
Lord Acton
Image
Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
Lord Acton
Image
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.
Lord Acton
Image
Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.
Lord Acton
Image
The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.
Lord Acton
Image
Progress, the religion of those who have none.
Lord Acton
Image
Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
Lord Acton
Image
Before men can find peace and harmony within themselves they must first fall in love with their country.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton