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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.

Lord Acton

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Lord Acton
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More quotes by Lord Acton

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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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Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.
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Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.
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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 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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Progress, the religion of those who have none.
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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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When the last of the Reformers died, religion, instead of emancipating the nations, had become an excuse for the criminal art of despots. Calvin preached, and Bellarmine lectured but Machiavelli reigned.
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Socialism means slavery.
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Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.
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The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.
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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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Every error pronounces judgment on itself when it attempts to apply its rules to the standard of truth.
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It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.
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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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Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
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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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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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Official truth is not actual truth.
Lord Acton
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Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
Lord Acton