110+ Lord Acton Quotes On Power, Political Analysis. And Evil

Lord Acton was a British historian, politician, and writer of the 19th century. He was known for his advocacy of constitutional monarchy and liberal reforms. He is most famous for his quote "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Following is our collection on famous quotes by Lord Acton on power, political analysis., evil.

Top 10 Lord Acton Quotes

1. 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.
2. Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.
3. Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
4. Socialism means slavery.
5. The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.
6. Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.
7. Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
8. It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
9. The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
10. Great men are almost always bad men.

Lord Acton Short Quotes

• There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
• The mills of God grind slowly.
• No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
• The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.
• In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law is above Congress.
• The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
• Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
• Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
• Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
• Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.

Lord Acton Quotes About Power

I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power...power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. — Lord Acton

And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. — Lord Acton

The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding. — Lord Acton

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority. — Lord Acton

Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought. — Lord Acton

Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power -- power sufficient to interfere with property. — Lord Acton

Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority... — Lord Acton

There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. — Lord Acton

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. — Lord Acton

A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved. — Lord Acton

Lord Acton Quotes About Evil

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

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

Good and evil lie close together. Seek no artistic unity in character. — Lord Acton

Lord Acton Quotes About Soul

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

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

Lord Acton Quotes About Politics

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

Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited. — Lord Acton

Fanaticism displays itself in the masses; but the masses were rarely fanaticised; and the crimes ascribed to it were commonly due to the calculations of dispassionate politicians. — Lord Acton

There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success. — Lord Acton

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

Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles. — 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

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

Self-preservation and self-denial: the basis of all political economy. — Lord Acton

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

Lord Acton Famous Quotes And Sayings

At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects often differed from their own; and this association, which is always dangerous, has sometimes been disastrous. — Lord Acton

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

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason. — 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

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

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 principle of the Inquisition was murderous. . . . The popes were not only murderers in the great style, but they also made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and a condition of salvation. — Lord Acton

If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh. — Lord Acton

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

At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities. — Lord Acton

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

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. — Lord Acton

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

Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being. — Lord Acton

A government does not desire its powers to be strictly defined, but the subjects require the line to be drawn with increasing precision. — Lord Acton

Absolute power demoralizes. — Lord Acton

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

I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo. — Lord Acton

From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason. — Lord Acton

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

Ink was not invented to express our real feelings. — Lord Acton

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

A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom — Lord Acton

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

Remember that one touch of ill-nature makes the whole world kin. — Lord Acton

A history that should pursue all the subtle threads from end to end might be eminently valuable, but not as a tribute to peace and conciliation. — Lord Acton

There should be a law to the People besides its own will. — Lord Acton

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

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

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

Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances. — Lord Acton

Liberty is the harmony between the will and the law. — Lord Acton

I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task. — Lord Acton

History is the arbiter of controversy, the monarch of all she surveys. — 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

Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't. — Lord Acton

Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word. — Lord Acton

Neither an enlightened philosophy, nor all the political wisdom of Rome, nor even the faith and virtue of the Christians availed against the incorrigible tradition of antiquity. Something was wanted, beyond all the gifts of reflection and experience - a faculty of self government and self control, developed like its language in the fibre of a nation, and growing with its growth. — Lord Acton

The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities. — Lord Acton

Judge talent at its best and character at its worst. — Lord Acton

Towns were the nursery of freedom. — Lord Acton

Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other. — Lord Acton

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

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

Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future. — Lord Acton

When the last of the Reformers died, religion, instead of emancipating the nations, had become an excuse for the criminal art of despots. Calvin preached, and Bellarmine lectured; but Machiavelli reigned. — Lord Acton

The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust. — 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

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

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

There are many things the government cant do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people. It cannot convert the people. — Lord Acton

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

It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness. — Lord Acton

Official truth is not actual truth. — Lord Acton

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

Before men can find peace and harmony within themselves they must first fall in love with their country. — Lord Acton

A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar. — Lord Acton

Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice. — Lord Acton

Progress, the religion of those who have none. — Lord Acton

To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history. — Lord Acton

Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers. — Lord Acton

Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes. — Lord Acton

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end...liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition...The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men. — Lord Acton

When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth. — Lord Acton

Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality. — Lord Acton

Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen. — Lord Acton

Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery. — Lord Acton

Life Lessons by Lord Acton

1. Lord Acton taught us the importance of moral integrity, stressing the need to always act with honesty and justice.
2. He also highlighted the importance of knowledge and education, believing that understanding the past can help us make better decisions in the present.
3. Lastly, he believed that power should be used responsibly, and that those in positions of authority should always strive to act in the best interests of the people.