John Dalberg-Acton

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.

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.

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.

A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.

The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.

Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral laws are written on the table of eternity.

By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes is his duty against the influence of authority and majorities, custom and opinion.

The greatest men, you can quote for everything.

Liberty is the condition of duty, the guardian of conscience. It grows as conscience grows. The domains of both grow together. Liberty is safety from all hindrances, even sin. So that Liberty ends by being Free Will.

Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.

By a series of violent shocks, the nations in succession have struggled to shake off the Past, to reverse the action of Time and the verdict of success, and to rescue the world from the reign of the dead.

Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.

Liberty is the prevention of control by others.

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.

There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.

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

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.

There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.

I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.

The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.

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.