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We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.

Lord Acton

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Lord Acton
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Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.
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It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.
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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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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
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When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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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.
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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Socialism means slavery.
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There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
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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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Before men can find peace and harmony within themselves they must first fall in love with their country.
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It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.
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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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Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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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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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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Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
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Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes to be his duty against the influences of authority and majorities, custom and opinion.
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