John Dalberg-Acton

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

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

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

“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.”

“Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.”

“There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.”

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

“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.”

“By a series of violent shocks, the nations in succession have struggled to shake off the Past, to reverse the action of Time and the verdict of success, and to rescue the world from the reign of the dead.”

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

“Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.”

“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.”

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

“If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.”

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

“History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.”