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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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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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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.
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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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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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Liberty is the harmony between the will and the law.
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If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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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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History is the arbiter of controversy, the monarch of all she surveys.
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Fanaticism displays itself in the masses but the masses were rarely fanaticised and the crimes ascribed to it were commonly due to the calculations of dispassionate politicians.
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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.
Lord Acton
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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.
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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.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
Lord Acton
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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
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
Lord Acton
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Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.
Lord Acton
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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.
Lord Acton
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Remember that one touch of ill-nature makes the whole world kin.
Lord Acton
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
Lord Acton