Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.
Lord ActonThere are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.
Lord ActonA wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
Lord ActonMen cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
Lord ActonWhenever a single definite object is made the supreme end of the State, be it the advantage of a class, the safety of the power of the country, the greatest happiness of the greatest number, or the support of any speculative idea, the State becomes for the time inevitably absolute. Liberty alone demands for its realization the limitation of the public authority, for liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition.
Lord Acton