The light that has guided us is still unquenched, and the causes that have carried us so far in the van of free nations have not spent their power; because the story of the future is written in the past, and that which hath been is the same thing that shall be.

— Lord Acton
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Lord Acton Quotes

Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.

— Lord Acton

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

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.

— Lord Acton

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

Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.

— Lord Acton

Advice to Persons About to Write History – Don’t.

— Lord Acton

When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.

— Lord Acton

The true guide of our conduct is no outward authority, but the voice of God, who comes down to dwell in our souls, who knows all our thoughts, to whom are owing all the truth we know, and all the good we do; for vice is voluntary, and virtue comes from the grace of the heavenly spirit within.

— Lord Acton

The few have not strength to achieve great changes unaided; the many have not wisdom to be moved by truth unmixed.

— Lord Acton

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

Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.

— Lord Acton
Book

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

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

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. It is not for the sake of a good public administration that it is required, but for the security in the pursuit of the highest objects of civil society, and of private life.

— Lord Acton

Guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own; and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testing.

— Lord Acton

The finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion of equality made vain the hope for freedom.

— Lord Acton

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
Country

Government by idea tends to take in everything, to make the whole of society obedient to the idea. Spaces not so governed are unconquered, beyond the border, unconverted, a future danger.

— Lord Acton

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

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
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