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
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.
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.
Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.
There is no evidence to support the belief that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev ever questioned Americas power. He questioned only the President's John F. Kennedys readiness to use it. Elie Abel, The Missile Crisis (1966) Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
Official truth is not actual truth.
Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.
A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.
There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.
Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power -- power sufficient to interfere with property.
History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
There should be a law to the People besides its own will.
Learn as much by writing as by reading.
I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.