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From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.

Lord Acton

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Lord Acton
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More quotes by 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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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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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.
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There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.
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Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian, neither rich nor poor, and the slave is as good as his master, for by birth all men are free they are citizens of the universal commonwealth which embraces all the world, brethren of one family, and children of God.
Lord Acton
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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.
Lord Acton
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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.
Lord Acton
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
Lord Acton
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The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
Lord Acton
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The mills of God grind slowly.
Lord Acton
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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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The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
Lord Acton
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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.
Lord Acton
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
Lord Acton
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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
Lord Acton
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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.
Lord Acton
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A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.
Lord Acton