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 mills of God grind slowly.
It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.
The reward of history is that it releases and relieves us from present strife.
Every error pronounces judgment on itself when it attempts to apply its rules to the standard of truth.
Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
Towns were the nursery of freedom.
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.
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.
History is not only a particular branch of knowledge, but a particular mode and method of knowledge in other branches.
Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.
The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.