All Lord Acton Quotes
Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.
Lord Acton
95% of people like this quote
History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
Lord Acton
92% of people like this quote
There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
Lord Acton
74% of people like this quote
The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority.
Lord Acton
65% of people like this quote
Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
Lord Acton
63% of people like this quote
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
59% of people like this quote
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
56% of people like this quote
There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.
Lord Acton
55% of people like this quote
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Lord Acton
54% of people like this quote
Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
Lord Acton
53% of people like this quote
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.
Lord Acton
52% of people like this quote
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
52% of people like this quote
The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
Lord Acton
52% of people like this quote
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
50% of people like this quote
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