Macmillans Acton Quotes

Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers. ~ Lord Acton

Whenever a single definite object is made the supreme end of the State, be it the advantage of a class, the safety of the power of the country, the greatest happiness of the greatest number, or the support of any speculative idea, the State becomes for the time inevitably absolute. Liberty alone demands for its realization the limitation of the public authority, for liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition. ~ Lord Acton

Some people take no mental exercise apart from jumping to conclusions. ~ Harold Acton

When I worked at Yahoo, I saw a lot of acquisitions. Some succeeded, and some failed. I think I have learned from that. ~ Brian Acton

Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force. ~ Lord Acton

Going public is 18-month process, while an acquisition is a 6-month process. Going public means going under so much scrutiny, regulatory approval, auditing, magnified 10 times. Having the stomach to do that isn't necessarily in my DNA. My DNA is building a product and a service. ~ Brian Acton

It was from America that the plain ideas that men ought to mind their business, and that the nation is responsible to Heaven for the acts of the State
ideas long locked in the breast of solitary thinkers, and hidden among Latin folios
burst forth like a conqueror upon the world they were destined to transform, under the title of the Rights of Man ... and the principle gained ground, that a nation can never abandon its fate to an authority it cannot control. ~ Lord Acton

The causes which ruined the Republic of Athens illustrate the connection of ethics with politics rather than the vices inherent to democracy. A State which has only 30,000 full citizens in a population of 500,000, and is governed, practically, by about 3000 people at a public meeting, is scarcely democratic. The short triumph of Athenian liberty, and its quick decline, belong to an age which possessed no fixed standard of right and wrong. An unparalleled activity of intellect was shaking the credit of the gods, and the gods were the givers of the law. It was a very short step from the suspicion of Protagoras, that there were no gods, to the assertion of Critias that there is no sanction for laws. If nothing was certain in theology, there was no certainty in ethics and no moral obligation. The will of man, not the will of God, was the rule of life, and every man and body of men had the right to do what they had the means of doing. Tyranny was no wrong, and it was hypocrisy to deny oneself the enjoyment it affords. The doctrine of the Sophists gave no limits to power and no security to freedom; it inspired that cry of the Athenians, that they must not be hindered from doing what they pleased, and the speeches of men like Athenagoras and Euphemus, that the democracy may punish men who have done no wrong, and that nothing that is profitable is amiss. And Socrates perished by the reaction which they provoked. ~ John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

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. ~ John Acton

Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery. ~ Lord Acton

False principles, which correspond with the bad as well as with the just aspirations of mankind, are a normal and necessary element in the social life of nations. ~ Lord Acton

Fanaticism displays itself in the masses; but the masses were rarely fanaticised; and the crimes ascribed to it were commonly due to the calculations of dispassionate politicians. ~ Lord Acton

At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects often differed from their own; and this association, which is always dangerous, has been sometimes disastrous, by giving to opponents just grounds of opposition, and by kindling dispute over the spoils in the hour of success. ~ John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime ... ~ Lord Acton

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

Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought. ~ John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge. ~ Lord Acton

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities ~ John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark. ~ Lord Acton

The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks. ~ John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority. ~ Lord Acton

A public man has no right to let his actions be determined by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not what is advantageous to a party or class. ~ Lord Acton

It is not, in fact, cookery books that we need half so much as cooks really trained to a knowledge of their duties. ~ Eliza Acton

I used to have a theory about photographing. It was a sense of getting in between two actions, or in between acton and repose. ~ Diane Arbus

Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism. ~ Lord Acton

Official truth is not actual truth. ~ Lord Acton

Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority. ~ Lord Acton

It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others. ~ Lord Acton

If, as I believe, the ends of men are many, and not all of them are in principle compatible with each other, then the possibility of conflict - and of tragedy - can never wholly be eliminated from human life, either personal or social. The necessity of choosing between absolute claims is then an inescapable characteristic of the human condition. This gives its value to freedom as Acton conceived of it - as an end in itself, and not as a temporary need, arising out of our confused notions and irrational and disordered lives, a predicament which a panacea could one day put right ~ Isaiah Berlin

Judge talent at its best and character at its worst. ~ Lord Acton

Thus the city repeats its life, identical, shifting up and down on its empty chessboard. The inhabitants repeat the same scenes, with the acton changed; they repeat the same speeches with variously combined accents; they open alternate mouths in identical yawns. Alone, among all the cities of the empire, Eutropia remains always the same. Mercury, god of the fickle, to whom the city is sacred, worked this ambiguous miracle. ~ Italo Calvino

Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. ~ John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

There are many things the government cant do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people. It cannot convert the people. ~ Lord Acton

Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice. ~ Lord Acton

The light that has guided us is still unquenched, and the causes that have carried us so far in the van of free nations have not spent their power; because the story of the future is written in the past, and that which hath been is the same thing that shall be. ~ Lord Acton

Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't. ~ Lord Acton

Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority. ~ Lord Acton

By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes is his duty against the influence of authority and majorities, custom and opinion. ~ John Acton

Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited. ~ Lord Acton

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

The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding. ~ Lord Acton

I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task. ~ Lord Acton

We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong. ~ Lord Acton

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

I think every acquisition is unique and different. The best strategy is to listen to the founders and follow their lead. ~ Brian Acton