Quote

History is the arbiter of controversy, the monarch of all she surveys.

Lord Acton

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Lord Acton
Monarch
Arbiter
Monarchs
Surveys
Controversy
History

More quotes by Lord Acton

Image
Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
Lord Acton
Image
When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
Lord Acton
Image
The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
Lord Acton
Image
Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
The mills of God grind slowly.
Lord Acton
Image
Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
Lord Acton
Image
We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.
Lord Acton
Image
Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.
Lord Acton
Image
There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
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.
Lord Acton
Image
A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
Lord Acton
Image
From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
Lord Acton
Image
The form of government and the condition of society must always correspond. Social equality is therefore a postulate of pure democracy.
Lord Acton
Image
At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
Lord Acton
Image
A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.
Lord Acton