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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

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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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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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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.
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The mills of God grind slowly.
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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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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
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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.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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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 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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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
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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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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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Remember that one touch of ill-nature makes the whole world kin.
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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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Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.
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