John Dalberg-Acton

“Socialism means slavery.”

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

“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.”

“Property is not the sacred right. When a rich man becomes poor it is a misfortune, it is not a moral evil. When a poor man becomes destitute, it is a moral evil, teeming with consequences and injurious to society and morality.”

“If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.”

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

“By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes is his duty against the influence of authority and majorities, custom and opinion.”

“There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.”

“Learn as much by writing as by reading.”

“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.”

“Far from being the product of a democratic revolution and of an opposition to English institutions, the constitution of the United States was the result of a powerful reaction against democracy, and in favor of the traditions of the mother country.”

“The greatest men, you can quote for everything.”

“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.”

“The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.”

“Liberty is the prevention of control by others.”

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

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

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

“Liberty is the condition of duty, the guardian of conscience. It grows as conscience grows. The domains of both grow together. Liberty is safety from all hindrances, even sin. So that Liberty ends by being Free Will.”

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