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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.

Lord Acton

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More quotes by Lord Acton

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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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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 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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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
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We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
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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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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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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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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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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
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Every error pronounces judgment on itself when it attempts to apply its rules to the standard of truth.
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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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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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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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