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The true natural check on absolute democracy is the federal system, which limits the central government by the powers reserved, and the state governments by the powers they have ceded.

Lord Acton

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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 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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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
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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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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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Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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Socialism means slavery.
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I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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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.
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The true guide of our conduct is no outward authority, but the voice of God, who comes down to dwell in our souls, who knows all our thoughts, to whom are owing all the truth we know, and all the good we do for vice is voluntary, and virtue comes from the grace of the heavenly spirit within.
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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 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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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.
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History is the arbiter of controversy, the monarch of all she surveys.
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Official truth is not actual truth.
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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
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