Lord Acton Quotes - Page 6

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• There should be a law to the People besides its own will.

  Lord Acton

  Law, People, Should

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Past, Rivers, Gold

  Lord Acton (2016). “Lectures on Modern History: Great Event”, p.1, VM eBooks

  7 Copy quote

• Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.

  Lord Acton

  Real, Land, Made

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.54, Jazzybee Verlag

  54 Copy quote

• 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

  Knowledge, Passion, Science

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “Lectures on Modern History”, p.28, Jazzybee Verlag

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Mean, Government, Political

  Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom: Great Event”, p.19, VM eBooks

  10 Copy quote

• Every error pronounces judgment on itself when it attempts to apply its rules to the standard of truth.

  Lord Acton

  Errors, Judgment, Standards

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.193, Jazzybee Verlag

  4 Copy quote

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

  Lord Acton

  Surveys, Controversy, Arbiter

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

  Lord Acton

  Country, Falling In Love, Peace

  4 Copy quote

• Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.

  Lord Acton

  Writing, History, Advice

  Lord Acton (2016). “Historical Essays and Studies: Great Event”, p.447, VM eBooks

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Past, Light, Stories

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.74, Jazzybee Verlag

  4 Copy quote

• It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.

  Lord Acton

  Weakness, Source, Dangerous

  4 Copy quote

• Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, 2,460 years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race. It is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization; and scarcely a century has passed since nations, that knew the meaning of the term, resolved to be free. In every age its 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

  Strong, Ignorance, 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.

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Teaching, Government, Political

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.59, Jazzybee Verlag

  8 Copy quote

• The barbarians, who possessed no books, no secular knowledge, no education, except in the schools of the clergy, and who had scarcely acquired the rudiments of religious instruction, turned with childlike attachment to men whose minds were stored with the knowledge of Scripture, of Cicero, of St. Augustine; and in the scanty world of their ideas, the Church was felt to be something infinitely vaster, stronger, holier than their newly founded States.

  Lord Acton

  Religious, Book, School

  Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom: Great Event”, p.29, VM eBooks

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Fighting, Rights, Civilization

  52 Copy quote

• 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

  Power, Support, President

  Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 3 April 1887, in Louise Creighton 'Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton' (1904) vol. 1, ch. 13.

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Government, Ideas, Space

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• Towns were the nursery of freedom.

  Lord Acton

  Towns, Nursery

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• The reward of history is that it releases and relieves us from present strife.

  Lord Acton

  Rewards, Release, Strife

  4 Copy quote

• The form of government and the condition of society must always correspond. Social equality is therefore a postulate of pure democracy.

  Lord Acton

  Government, Democracy, Social

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.253, Jazzybee Verlag

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Might, Ends, Subtle

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.76, Jazzybee Verlag

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Politics, Politician, Crime

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.61, Jazzybee Verlag

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Country, Class, Ideas

  Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom: Great Event”, p.239, VM eBooks

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Fate, Government, Hands

  5 Copy quote

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

  Lord Acton

  Absolutism, Lost, Stakes

  Letter to Robert E. Lee, November 4, 1866.

  7 Copy quote

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