Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton More Quotes by Lord Acton More Quotes From Lord Acton By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes to be his duty against the influences of authority and majorities, custom and opinion. Lord Acton menmeanbelieve 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 politicaljusticereality 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. Lord Acton deceptionsubstanceideas False principles, which correspond with the bad as well as with the just aspirations of mankind, are a normal and necessary element in the social life of nations. Lord Acton elementsnormalprinciples Though oppression may give rise to violent and repeated outbreaks, like the convulsions of a man in pain, it cannot mature a settled purpose and plan of regeneration, unless a new notion of happiness is joined to the sense of present evil. Lord Acton painevilmen 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 sacredevilmen Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't. Lord Acton writingadvicehistory If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh. Lord Acton anxietypapermorning Towns were the nursery of freedom. Lord Acton nurserytowns We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong. Lord Acton not-surecasesmade A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark. Lord Acton lowswatermen Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge. Lord Acton superstitionsbirthgiving I saw in States' rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy.... Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization, and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo. Lord Acton fightingrightscivilization Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery. Lord Acton stationeryspeechsilence The wisdom of divine rule appears not in the perfection but in the improvement of the world... History is the true demonstration of Religion. Lord Acton improvementperfectionworld History is the arbiter of controversy, the monarch of all she surveys. Lord Acton surveyscontroversyarbiter It is they [men of science] who hold the secret of the mysterious property of the mind by which error ministers to truth, and truth slowly but irrevocably prevails. Theirs is the logic of discovery, the demonstration of the advance of knowledge and the development of ideas, which as the earthly wants and passions of men remain almost unchanged, are the charter of progress, and the vital spark in history. Lord Acton passionscienceknowledge Whenever a single definite object is made the supreme end of the State, be it the advantage of a class, the safety of the power of the country, the greatest happiness of the greatest number, or the support of any speculative idea, the State becomes for the time inevitably absolute. Liberty alone demands for its realization the limitation of the public authority, for liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition. Lord Acton classcountryideas The fate of every democracy, of every government based on the sovereignty of the people, depends on the choices it makes between these opposite principles, absolute power on the one hand, and on the other the restraints of legality and the authority of tradition. Lord Acton fategovernmenthands Liberty is the prevention of control by others. Lord Acton preventionliberty
