AtomicQuote

Lord Acton Quotes

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Lord Acton

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Tags: politics, power, power corrupts, corrupt

Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.

Lord Acton

Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.

Tags: history, historians

About Author
John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli, (10 January 1834 – 19 June 1902), better known as Lord Acton, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He is best remembered for the remark he wrote in a letter to an Anglican bishop in 1887: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Socialism means slavery.

Lord Acton

Socialism means slavery.

Tags: slavery, socialism, means

I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.

Lord Acton

I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.

Tags: business, money, beautiful, artist

Learn as much by writing as by reading.

Lord Acton

Learn as much by writing as by reading.

Tags: writing, reading, learn

There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

Lord Acton

There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

Tags: politics

There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities such as More Bacon Grotius Pascal Cromwell Bossuet Montesquieu Jef...

Lord Acton

There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities such as More Bacon Grotius Pascal Cromwell Bossuet Montesquieu Jef...

Tags: mistakes, blunders

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.

Lord Acton

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.

Tags: history, memory, soul, burden

Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities such as More Bacon Grotius Pascal Cromwell Bossuet Montesquieu Jefferson Napoleon Pitt etc. They would be an Encyclopedia of Errors.

Lord Acton

Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities such as More Bacon Grotius Pascal Cromwell Bossuet Montesquieu Jefferson Napoleon Pitt etc. They would be an Encyclopedia of Errors.

Tags: failures, mistakes

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Lord Acton

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Tags: power

Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.

Lord Acton

Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.

Tags: power, freedom, liberty, doing

The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by...

Lord Acton

The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by...

Tags: history, future, science

Good and evil lie close together. Seek no artistic unity in character.

Lord Acton

Good and evil lie close together. Seek no artistic unity in character.

Tags: goodness, giving

There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.

Lord Acton

There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.

Tags: smile, eye, soul, handshake

Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.

Lord Acton

Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.

Tags: nature

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

Lord Acton

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

Tags: morning, newspapers, journalism, today, great, nothing

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

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.

Tags: history, men, power, remember

To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.

Lord Acton

To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.

Tags: past, live, look

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

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

Tags: faith, government

The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by e...

Lord Acton

The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by e...

Tags: experience, future, history, knowledge, politics, science