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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
Democracy
Oligarchy
Expands
Supremacy
Aristocracy
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Monarchy
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More quotes by Lord Acton
Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.
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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 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, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
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From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.
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History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.
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Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.
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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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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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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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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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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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History is the arbiter of controversy, the monarch of all she surveys.
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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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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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A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
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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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Property is not the sacred right. When a rich man becomes poor it is a misfortune, it is not a moral evil. When a poor man becomes destitute, it is a moral evil, teeming with consequences and injurious to society and morality.
Lord Acton