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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.

Lord Acton

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Lord Acton
Accompanied
Corruption
Morality
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Always
Despotic

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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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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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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.
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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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The passion for power over others can never cease to threaten mankind, and is always sure of finding new and unforseen allies in continuing its martyrology.
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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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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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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 is the harmony between the will and the law.
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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. 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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From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects often differed from their own and this association, which is always dangerous, has sometimes been disastrous.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. It is not for the sake of a good public administration that it is required, but for the security in the pursuit of the highest objects of civil society, and of private life.
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