Lord Acton Quotes
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
Perhaps the most famous quotation in all of Political Science is this one. What is fascinating is that 74 years earlier, Shelly, the most famous of the English Poets expressed the same idea in one of his great poems. See {627920}. The last sentence of this quote is often excluded.
John Emerich Edward Dalberg [Lord Acton], 1834-1902, English Historian and Member of Parliament (Liberal), Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, April 5, 1887
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This is a variation of the famous Lord Acton quote {292904}.
This is a variation of the famous Lord Acton quotation: {292904}.
This is a logically equivalent phrasing of Lord Acton’s famous quote: {292904}.
In a variant of Lord Acton’s famous quotation {292904} Caro focused on what people did with power once they had achieved it. This, he believed, revealed character.
This is a variant on Lord Acton’s famous quotation {292904}
Perhaps the most famous quotation in all of Political Science is Lord Acton’s observation about power. See {292904}. What is fascinating is that 74 years earlier, Shelly, the most famous of the English Poets expressed the same idea in one of his great poems.
He served a 20 year sentence. Unlike many of the other Nazis, upon reflection of his experience, he came to realize the wisdom of Lord Acton’s observation about power. See {292904}.
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.
