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The reward of history is that it releases and relieves us from present strife.

Lord Acton

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Lord Acton
Releases
Strife
Reward
Release
Rewards
Present
History
Relieves

More quotes by Lord Acton

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A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.
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Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
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The few have not strength to achieve great changes unaided the many have not wisdom to be moved by truth unmixed.
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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
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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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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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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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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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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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A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
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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 public man has no right to let his actions be determined by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not what is advantageous to a party or class.
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Every error pronounces judgment on itself when it attempts to apply its rules to the standard of truth.
Lord Acton
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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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Fanaticism displays itself in the masses but the masses were rarely fanaticised and the crimes ascribed to it were commonly due to the calculations of dispassionate politicians.
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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.
Lord Acton
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Before men can find peace and harmony within themselves they must first fall in love with their country.
Lord Acton
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
Lord Acton