Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice. Lord Acton More Quotes by Lord Acton More Quotes From Lord Acton The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality. Lord Acton morality democracy vices The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust. Lord Acton unjust people There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. Lord Acton failing errors men Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited. Lord Acton essentials political government Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being. Lord Acton wisdom religious spiritual Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together. Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Lord Acton political government mean Official truth is not actual truth. Lord Acton officials truth-is 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. Lord Acton allies mankind passion There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. Lord Acton corrupt-power political office Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality. Lord Acton morality corruption Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future. Lord Acton doe past 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 democracy government limits A public man has no right to let his actions be determined by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not what is advantageous to a party or class. Lord Acton party class men For centuries it was never discovered that education was a function of the State, and the State never attempted to educate. But when modern absolutism arose, it laid claim to everything on behalf of the sovereign power....When the revolutionary theory of government began to prevail, and Church and State found that they were educating for opposite ends and in a contradictory spirit, it became necessary to remove children entirely from the influence of religion. Lord Acton government opposites children Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime. Lord Acton next liberty deeds It was from America that the plain ideas that men ought to mind their business, and that the nation is responsible to Heaven for the acts of the State, - ideas long locked in the breast of solitary thinkers, and hidden among Latin folios, - burst forth like a conqueror upon the world they were destined to transform, under the title of the Rights of Man... and the principle gained ground, that a nation can never abandon its fate to an authority it cannot control. Lord Acton fate latin men In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress. Lord Acton england law america A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar. Lord Acton honest liars men 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. Lord Acton independence envy ideas Far from being the product of a democratic revolution and of an opposition to English institutions, the constitution of the United States was the result of a powerful reaction against democracy, and in favor of the traditions of the mother country. Lord Acton powerful mother country
