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Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.

Lord Acton

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Lord Acton
Supremacy
Aristocracy
Despotism
Monarchy
Contracts
Numbers
Hardens
Democracy
Oligarchy
Expands

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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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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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I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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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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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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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.
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When the last of the Reformers died, religion, instead of emancipating the nations, had become an excuse for the criminal art of despots. Calvin preached, and Bellarmine lectured but Machiavelli reigned.
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A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.
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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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Liberty is the harmony between the will and the law.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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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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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
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The reward of history is that it releases and relieves us from present strife.
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Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
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Before men can find peace and harmony within themselves they must first fall in love with their country.
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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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A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.
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