Lord Acton Quotes
In every age its (liberty's) progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food
Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg. "The History of Freedom in Antiquity." The History of Freedom and Other Essays, Macmillan and Co., 1907, p. 1.
Teller had been a strong proponent of developing the H-bomb. Oppenheimer, however, was opposed on moral and strategic grounds. Politically, Oppenheimer had a strong following, having been the “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” and his opposition was hurting the political effort to vote the funds. The Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Lewis L. Strauss, and some in the military decided that they would discredit Oppenheimer by claiming that he had communist leanings and his ideas were influenced by his pro-communist views. Oppenheimer was an easy victim as his brother had been a card-carrying communist and he had always known many left wing academic intellectuals in his university background. Despite the fact that all this had been known by the government security people for years and he had never let a secret leak, a hearing was held to determine whether Oppenheimer’s security clearance should be removed. The key testimony was given by General Groves, Oppenheimer’s former boss who had cleared Oppenheimer for security for years, and Teller. It was later discovered that Groves had been blackmailed into testifying against Oppenheimer. Later Teller, who defended his strong views contrary to Oppenheimer’s, regretted that he won his battle the way he did and told the world that Oppenheimer was a patriot and would never do anything knowingly to hurt his country. To the end of his career over 50 years afterward, there were still many scientists who would turn their backs on Teller at scientific meeting and would not even shake his hand.
Even in free America, Allen had a very difficult time getting this work printed because it was so controversial culturally. He argued that existing religions contribute to superstitious fears of the population.
He offended the Rabbis ofr Amsterdam by extolling the concept of salvation and Jesus Christ, and he offended the Priests with the last sentence. Much of his theology also offended the Muslims. Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.
John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli, better known as Lord Acton, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He was the only son of Sir Ferdinand Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet, and a grandson of the Neapolitan admiral and prime minister Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet. Between 1837 and 1869 he was known as Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Baronet.
