John Dalberg-Acton

If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.

By a series of violent shocks, the nations in succession have struggled to shake off the Past, to reverse the action of Time and the verdict of success, and to rescue the world from the reign of the dead.

Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

Far from being the product of a democratic revolution and of an opposition to English institutions, the constitution of the United States was the result of a powerful reaction against democracy, and in favor of the traditions of the mother country.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

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.

A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.

I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.

Liberty is the condition of duty, the guardian of conscience. It grows as conscience grows. The domains of both grow together. Liberty is safety from all hindrances, even sin. So that Liberty ends by being Free Will.

The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.