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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.

Lord Acton

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Lord Acton
Political
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More quotes by Lord Acton

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History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.
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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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Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
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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 mills of God grind slowly.
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To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.
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Though oppression may give rise to violent and repeated outbreaks, like the convulsions of a man in pain, it cannot mature a settled purpose and plan of regeneration, unless a new notion of happiness is joined to the sense of present evil.
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At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects often differed from their own and this association, which is always dangerous, has sometimes been disastrous.
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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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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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History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
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From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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The true natural check on absolute democracy is the federal system, which limits the central government by the powers reserved, and the state governments by the powers they have ceded.
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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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Remember that one touch of ill-nature makes the whole world kin.
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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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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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Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
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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.
Lord Acton
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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