Lord Acton Quotes - Page 5

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• Absolute power demoralizes.

  Lord Acton

  Absolute Power, Absolutes

  8 Copy quote

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

  Lord Acton

  Exercise, Men, Influence And Power

  "Historical Essays and Studies". Book by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, oll.libertyfund.org. 1907.

  13 Copy quote

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

  Lord Acton

  History, Giving, Merit

  Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom: Great Event”, p.125, VM eBooks

  7 Copy quote

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

  Lord Acton

  Character, Men, Personality

  Lord Acton (2016). “Historical Essays and Studies: Great Event”, p.449, VM eBooks

  5 Copy quote

• Everybody likes to get as much power as circumstances allow, and nobody will vote for a self-denying ordinance.

  Lord Acton

  Self, Likes, Vote

  4 Copy quote

• Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.

  Lord Acton

  Giving, Superstitions, Birth

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.296, Jazzybee Verlag

  4 Copy quote

• Self-preservation and self-denial: the basis of all political economy.

  Lord Acton

  Self, Political, Denial

  4 Copy quote

• Remember that one touch of ill-nature makes the whole world kin.

  Lord Acton

  World, Remember, Ill

  4 Copy quote

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

  Lord Acton

  Spiritual, Men, Motive

  4 Copy quote

• To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.

  Lord Acton

  History, Perfect, Achievement

  4 Copy quote

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

  Lord Acton

  People, Redemption, Appeals

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.36, Jazzybee Verlag

  6 Copy quote

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

  Lord Acton

  People, Achieve, Moved

  Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom: Great Event”, p.225, VM eBooks

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Smile, Eye, Soul

  37 Copy quote

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

  Lord Acton

  Mean, Doe, Ends

  5 Copy quote

• 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, Reality, Men

  4 Copy quote

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

  Lord Acton

  Liberty, Triumph, Minorities

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.28, Jazzybee Verlag

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Perfection, World, Improvement

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Religious, Integrity, Philosophical

  "Historical Essays and Studies". Book by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, oll.libertyfund.org. 1907.

  4 Copy quote

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

  Lord Acton

  Nature, Moving, Science

  8 Copy quote

• It was from America that the plain ideas that men ought to mind their business, and that the nation is responsible to Heaven for the acts of the State, - ideas long locked in the breast of solitary thinkers, and hidden among Latin folios, - burst forth like a conqueror upon the world they were destined to transform, under the title of the Rights of Man... and the principle gained ground, that a nation can never abandon its fate to an authority it cannot control.

  Lord Acton

  Latin, Fate, Men

  "The History of Freedom in Antiquity". Lord Acton's opening statement of his speech on February 28, 1877; later quoted in "The History of Freedom and Other Essays" edited by John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere Laurence, 1907.

  5 Copy quote

• The epoch of doubt and transition during which the Greeks passed from the dim fancies of mythology to the fierce light of science was the age of Pericles, and the endeavour to substitute certain truth for the prescriptions of impaired authorities, which was then beginning to absorb the energies of the Greek intellect, is the grandest movement in the profane annals of mankind, for to it we owe, even after the immeasurable progress accomplished by Christianity, much of our philosophy and far the better part of the political knowledge we possess.

  Lord Acton

  Philosophy, Light, Political

  Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom: Great Event”, p.7, VM eBooks

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  Principles, Elements, Normal

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.260, Jazzybee Verlag

  4 Copy quote

• The State is competent to assign duties and draw the line between good and evil only in its immediate sphere. Beyond the limits of things necessary for its well-being, it can only give indirect help to fight the battle of life by promoting the influences which prevail against temptation--religion, education, and the distribution of wealth.

  Lord Acton

  Fighting, Evil, Giving

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.30, Jazzybee Verlag

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Pain, Men, Evil

  Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom: Great Event”, p.224, VM eBooks

  7 Copy quote

• History is not only a particular branch of knowledge, but a particular mode and method of knowledge in other branches.

  Lord Acton

  History, Branches, Method

  4 Copy quote

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