Quotes by Lord Acton

About Lord Acton:

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton is perhaps best known for the remark, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." His key idea has been tested in laboratory settings under strongly incentivized conditions and with real manipulations of power and confirms what he has suggested: that power corrupts.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

Lord Acton

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

Lord Acton

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.

Lord Acton

There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.

Lord Acton

A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.

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

The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.

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

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

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 instrume...

Lord Acton

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

Lord Acton

I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.

Lord Acton

Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral laws are written on the table of eternity.

Lord Acton

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.

Lord Acton

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

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

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

To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.

Lord Acton

Learn as much by writing as by reading.

Lord Acton

Author Bio

  • NameLord Acton
  • DescriptionBritish politician
  • BornJanuary 10, 1834
  • DiedJune 19, 1902
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionPolitician; Historian; Educationist; Writer
  • AwardsKnight Commander Of The Royal Victorian Order