Quote #12
Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime...
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
More from John Acton
- The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
- At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating th…
- Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, k…
- By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes his duty against the influence of authority and…
- In ancient times the State absorbed authorities not its own, and intruded on the domain of personal freedom. In the Middle Ages it possesse…
- There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.
- It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masse…
- I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they did not wrong. If th…