Lord Acton
Lord Acton
John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, KCVO DL—known as Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Baronet from 1837 to 1869 and usually referred to simply 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 Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet. He is perhaps best known for the remark, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth10 January 1834
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the party that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.
Democracy generally monopolizes and concentrates power.
The form of government and the condition of society must always correspond. Social equality is therefore a postulate of pure democracy.
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.
The true natural check on absolute democracy is the federal system, which limits the central government by the powers reserved, and the state governments by the powers they have ceded.
Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.
Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.
To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.
Remember that one touch of ill-nature makes the whole world kin.
Political differences essentially depend on disagreement in moral principles.
Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.
Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.