Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Lord Acton
Limits
Check
Democracy
Federal
System
Governments
State
Central
Natural
Checks
True
Powers
States
Absolutes
Ceded
Government
Absolute
Reserved

More quotes by Lord Acton

Image
At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
Lord Acton
Image
Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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
Image
I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
Lord Acton
Image
Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
Lord Acton
Image
The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
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
Before men can find peace and harmony within themselves they must first fall in love with their country.
Lord Acton
Image
Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.
Lord Acton
Image
Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
Lord Acton
Image
A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.
Lord Acton
Image
Liberty is the harmony between the will and the law.
Lord Acton
Image
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
Lord Acton
Image
If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.
Lord Acton
Image
The wisdom of divine rule appears not in the perfection but in the improvement of the world... History is the true demonstration of Religion.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
The principle of the Inquisition was murderous. . . . The popes were not only murderers in the great style, but they also made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and a condition of salvation.
Lord Acton
Image
I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power...power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Lord Acton
Image
Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.
Lord Acton