Lord Acton



1834-1902


Quotes by This Author


“Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end...liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition...The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern...Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (Lord Acton)

“The one prevailing evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority…” (Lord Acton)

“the appalling thing in the French Revolution is not the tumult but the design. Through all the fire and smoke we perceive the evidence of calculating organization. The managers remain studiously concealed and masked; but there is no doubt about their presence from the first.” (Lord Acton, Lectures on the French Revolution, p. 97.)