Great men are almost always bad men.
Lord ActonRead
Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the significant influence of Greek culture on the development of Western civilization.
Lord Acton's quote suggests that nearly everything that shapes our world, whether it be art, science, language, or thought, has its roots in Greek culture and heritage. He highlights the foundational role that ancient Greece played in the development of various aspects of modern life, asserting that this cultural legacy is unparalleled except for the primal forces of nature.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of cultural heritage in shaping societies.
Great men are almost always bad men.
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.
Only one endowed with restless vitality is susceptible to pessimism. You become a pessimist-a demonic, elemental, bestial pessimist-only when life has been defeated many times in its fight against depression.
This is the pathless path - returning to where you were initially before you got lost. The deepest truth in you is where the journey leads - shedding, like taking off layers of an onion, until you come to your essence. The key to the spiritual journey is not acquiring something outside of yourself. Rather it is shedding the veils to come back to the deepest truth of your being.
War is the province of danger.
He has no right to his life when his duty calls him to resign it. Other men are bound... to deprive him of life or liberty, if that should appear in any case to be indispensably necessary to prevent a greater evil.
Sin can bring pleasure, but never happiness.
Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished.
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