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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
Numbers
Hardens
Democracy
Oligarchy
Expands
Supremacy
Aristocracy
Despotism
Monarchy
Contracts

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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 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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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.
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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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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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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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A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.
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The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.
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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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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power -- power sufficient to interfere with property.
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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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Remember that one touch of ill-nature makes the whole world kin.
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Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.
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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.
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The reward of history is that it releases and relieves us from present strife.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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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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I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power...power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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