Lord Acton Quotes - Page 4

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.

A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.

History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.

That great political idea, sanctifying freedom and consecrating it to God, teaching men to treasure the liberties of others as their own and to defend them for the love of justice and charity more than as a claim of right, has been the soul of what is great and good in the progress of the last two hundred years.

Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.

Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.

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.

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

A government does not desire its powers to be strictly defined, but the subjects require the line to be drawn with increasing precision.

The idea that the object of constitutions is not to confirm the predominance of any interest, but to prevent it; to preserve with equal care the independence of labour and the security of property; to make the rich safe against envy, and the poor against oppression, marks the highest level attained by the statesmanship of Greece.

The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.

Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.

No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.

Every class is unfit to govern.

Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.

The history of institutions is often a history of deception and illusions; for their virtue depends on the ideas that produce and on the spirit that preserves them, and the form may remain unaltered when the substance has passed away.

In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.

I exhort you never to debase the moral currency or to lower the standard of rectitude, but to try others by the final maxim that governs your own lives, and to suffer no man and no cause to escape the undying penalty which history has the power to inflict on wrong.

Absolute power demoralizes.

Everybody likes to get as much power as circumstances allow, and nobody will vote for a self-denying ordinance.

Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.

Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority...

I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.

Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.