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 experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.
Category Archive: Lord Acton
The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority.
The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
To be able to look back upon one’s past life with satisfaction is to live twice.
History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
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.
Property is not the sacred right. When a rich man becomes poor it is a misfortune, it is not a moral evil. When a poor man becomes destitute, it is a moral evil, teeming with consequences and injurious to society and morality.
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.