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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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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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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
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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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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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Liberty is the harmony between the will and the law.
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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
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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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A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.
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Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.
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The fate of every democracy, of every government based on the sovereignty of the people, depends on the choices it makes between these opposite principles, absolute power on the one hand, and on the other the restraints of legality and the authority of tradition.
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Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.
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The passion for power over others can never cease to threaten mankind, and is always sure of finding new and unforseen allies in continuing its martyrology.
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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 common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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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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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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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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