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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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More quotes by 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.
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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
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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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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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Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.
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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 one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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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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The true natural check on absolute democracy is the federal system, which limits the central government by the powers reserved, and the state governments by the powers they have ceded.
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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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Official truth is not actual truth.
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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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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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.
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The reward of history is that it releases and relieves us from present strife.
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Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.
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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.
Lord Acton
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Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.
Lord Acton
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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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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
Lord Acton