50 Motivational Lord Acton Quotes On Success In Life

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli, KCVO, DL 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. Lord Acton quotes will motivate you.

Best Lord Acton Quotes

1. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. ~ Lord Acton
2. 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. ~ Lord Acton
3. Socialism means slavery. ~ Lord Acton
4. The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections. ~ Lord Acton
5. Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty. ~ Lord Acton
6. The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks. ~ Lord Acton, Lord Acton quotes on banks
7. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still, more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. ~ Lord Acton

8. A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times. ~ Lord Acton

9. The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern. ~ Lord Acton
10. Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force. ~ Lord Acton
11. Official truth is not actual truth. ~ Lord Acton
12. Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought. ~ Lord Acton
13. 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

14. Great men are almost always bad men. ~ Lord Acton

15. It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others. ~ Lord Acton
16. The passion for power over others can never cease to threaten mankind and is always sure of finding new and unforeseen allies in continuing its martyrology. ~ Lord Acton
17. Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited. ~ Lord Acton
18. 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
19. History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul. ~ Lord Acton
20. I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King, unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power…Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. ~ Lord Acton
21. There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. ~ Lord Acton

22. It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. ~ Lord Acton

23. The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding. ~ Lord Acton
24. Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power — power sufficient to interfere with the property. ~ Lord Acton
25. The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority. ~ Lord Acton
26. A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom ~ Lord Acton
27. Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality. ~ Lord Acton

28. Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. ~ Lord Acton

29. The finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion of equality made vain the hope for freedom. ~ Lord Acton
30. The true guide of our conduct is no outward authority, but the voice of God, who comes down to dwell in our souls, who knows all our thoughts, to whom are owing all the truth we know, and all the good we do; for vice is voluntary, and virtue comes from the grace of the heavenly spirit within. ~ Lord Acton
31. 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. ~ Lord Acton
32. The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust. ~ Lord Acton
33. Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being. ~ Lord Acton
34. Democracy generally monopolizes and concentrates power. ~ Lord Acton

35. Every class is unfit to govern. ~ Lord Acton

36. Judge talent at its best and character at its worst. ~ Lord Acton
37. Be generous before you are just. Do not temper mercy with justice. ~ Lord Acton
38. The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities. ~ Lord Acton
39. 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 sometimes been disastrous. ~ Lord Acton
40. The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge. ~ Lord Acton
41. If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation. ~ Lord Acton

42. The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality. ~ Lord Acton

43. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise, and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. ~ Lord Acton
44. Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end…liberty is the only object which benefits all alike and provokes no sincere opposition…The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern … Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men. ~ Lord Acton
45. It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people, there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason. ~ Lord Acton
46. Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism. ~ Lord Acton
47. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. ~ Lord Acton
48. Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances. ~ Lord Acton
49. Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into an oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers. ~ Lord Acton
50. No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence. ~ Lord Acton

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