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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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Liberty

More quotes by Lord Acton

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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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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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In every age its (liberty's) progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food
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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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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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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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Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.
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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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Socialism means slavery.
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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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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. It is not for the sake of a good public administration that it is required, but for the security in the pursuit of the highest objects of civil society, and of private life.
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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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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 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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A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.
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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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It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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History is the arbiter of controversy, the monarch of all she surveys.
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Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian, neither rich nor poor, and the slave is as good as his master, for by birth all men are free they are citizens of the universal commonwealth which embraces all the world, brethren of one family, and children of God.
Lord Acton