Lord Acton Quotes - Page 2

Liberty is the prevention of control by others.

A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.

History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.

Great men are almost always bad men.

If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.

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.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.

The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.

The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.

If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.

Democracy generally monopolizes and concentrates power.

Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.

Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.

There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.

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.

Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.

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.

Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power -- power sufficient to interfere with property.

There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.

The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.

Progress, the religion of those who have none.

A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.