Lord Acton

Great men are almost always bad men.

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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.

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

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

Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.

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.

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

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

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

Liberty is the harmony between the will and the law.

Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.