Lord Acton Quotes

There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

It is not easy to do something good, but it is extremely difficult to do something bad.

… he must deceive, misrepresent, leave false impressions … and trust to charm, loyalty and the result to make up for it…. A great man cannot be a good man.

Great and good are seldom the same man.

Bad company corrupts good character.

It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

If we insist that public life be reserved for those whose personal history is pristine, we are not going to get paragons of virtue running our affairs. We will get the very rich, who will contract out the messy things in life: the very dull, who have nothing to hide and nothing to show: and the very devious, expert at covering their tracks and ambitious enough to risk their discovery.

He was as great as a man can be without morality

John McCain is never the kind of person that lies to himself. When he does something wrong he knows it and deals with it.... One of the few great men.

I've never met anyone who is seriously bad.

The more virtuous any man is, the less easily does he suspect others to be vicious.

Thus, I blush to add, you can not be a philosopher and a good man, though you may be a philosopher and a great one.

Great men are sincere.

Virtue steals, like a guilty thing, into the secret haunts of vice and infamy, clings to their devoted victim, and will not be driven quite away. Nothing can destroy the human heart.

There has never been a man mean and at the same time virtuous.

People often tell me I could be a great man. I'd rather be a good man.

When virtue is at liberty, so to some extent is vice.

You can be a virtuous person without faith in God.

A good man, is a good man, whether in this church, or out of it.

Being good is just a matter of temperament in the end.

Goodness is beauty in the best estate.

Elegance is inferior to virtue.

Men are more often bribed by their loyalties and ambitions than by money.

No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.

Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness.