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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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Lord Acton
Many
Things
Stationery
Speech
Silence
Others
Better

More quotes by Lord Acton

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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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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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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.
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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 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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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.
Lord Acton
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It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.
Lord Acton
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A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.
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If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
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Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
Lord Acton
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Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power -- power sufficient to interfere with property.
Lord Acton
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities, such as More, Bacon, Grotius, Pascal, Cromwell, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Napoleon, Pitt, etc. The result would be an Encyclopedia of Error.
Lord Acton
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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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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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Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.
Lord Acton
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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.
Lord Acton
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
Lord Acton