LORD ACTON

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

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

History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.

Liberty is the prevention of control by others.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The greatest men, you can quote for everything.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

Learn as much by writing as by reading.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.