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The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.

Lord Acton

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Lord Acton
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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A government does not desire its powers to be strictly defined, but the subjects require the line to be drawn with increasing precision.
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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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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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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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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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Socialism means slavery.
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The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class. It is not the realisation of a political ideal: it is the discharge of a moral obligation.
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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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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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A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.
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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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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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I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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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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Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
Lord Acton