Every class is unfit to govern. Lord Acton More Quotes by Lord Acton More Quotes From Lord Acton A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom Lord Acton elements people firsts Government rules the present. Literature rules the future. Lord Acton government literature The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class. It is not the realisation of a political ideal: it is the discharge of a moral obligation. Lord Acton race law class Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers. Lord Acton aristocracy democracy numbers Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other. Lord Acton ends doe mean It is very easy to speak words of wisdom from a comfortable distance, when one sees no reality, no details, none of the effect on men's minds. Lord Acton distance men reality There is no evidence to support the belief that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev ever questioned Americas power. He questioned only the President's John F. Kennedys readiness to use it. Elie Abel, The Missile Crisis (1966) Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton support president power Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this. Lord Acton liable atheism sin 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. Lord Acton teaching men years 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 Lord Acton strong ignorance wisdom I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo. Lord Acton absolutism stakes lost 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. Lord Acton suffering trying men 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. Lord Acton greek men children Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin. Lord Acton nature science moving History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong. Lord Acton penalties suffering history 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. Lord Acton etc errors men Judge not according to the orthodox standard of a system religious, philosophical, political, but according as things promote, or fail to promote the delicacy, integrity, and authority of Conscience. Lord Acton philosophical religious integrity Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, 2,460 years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race. It is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization; and scarcely a century has passed since nations, that knew the meaning of the term, resolved to be free. In every age its 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. Lord Acton strong ignorance men The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities. Lord Acton equality freedom country The few have not strength to achieve great changes unaided; the many have not wisdom to be moved by truth unmixed. Lord Acton moved achieve people
