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John Dalberg Acton
Be not content...
Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.
Guard against the...
Guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own; and do not shrink from disagreement;...
Be more severe...
Be more severe to ideas than to actions; do not over look the strength of the bad cause or the weakness of the...
There is no...
There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.
Power tends to...
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Source: Letter, 3...
Learn as much...
Learn as much by writing as by reading.
Source: In Quotations of Wit and Wisdom,...
Patriotism is in...
Patriotism is in political life what faith is in religion.
Source: 'Nationality',...
A wise person...
A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different...
Writers the most...
Writers the most learned, the most accurate in details, and the soundest in tendency, frequently fall into a habit...
To be able...
To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.
The danger is...
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to...
There are two...
There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by...
Opinions alter, manners...
Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral laws are written on the table of...
The most certain...
The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by...
Every thing secret...
Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear...