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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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Lord Acton
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Every error pronounces judgment on itself when it attempts to apply its rules to the standard of truth.
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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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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
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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.
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Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.
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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.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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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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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
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The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class. It is not the realisation of a political ideal: it is the discharge of a moral obligation.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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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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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
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Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
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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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I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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