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In every age its (liberty's) progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food

Lord Acton

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Lord Acton
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More quotes by Lord Acton

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Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.
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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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If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
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Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.
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The fate of every democracy, of every government based on the sovereignty of the people, depends on the choices it makes between these opposite principles, absolute power on the one hand, and on the other the restraints of legality and the authority of tradition.
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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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Before men can find peace and harmony within themselves they must first fall in love with their country.
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The mills of God grind slowly.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
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Socialism means slavery.
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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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The form of government and the condition of society must always correspond. Social equality is therefore a postulate of pure democracy.
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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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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
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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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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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The idea that the object of constitutions is not to confirm the predominance of any interest, but to prevent it to preserve with equal care the independence of labour and the security of property to make the rich safe against envy, and the poor against oppression, marks the highest level attained by the statesmanship of Greece.
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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.
Lord Acton