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. John Dalberg-Acton Read Quote
Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin. John Dalberg-Acton Read Quote
Machiavelli’s teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith. John Dalberg-Acton Read Quote
There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye. John Dalberg-Acton Read Quote
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. John Dalberg-Acton Read Quote
The fate of every democracy, of every government based on the sovereignty of the people, depends on the choices it makes between these opposite principles, absolute power on the one hand, and on the other the restraints of legality and the authority of tradition. John Dalberg-Acton Read Quote
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. John Dalberg-Acton Read Quote
If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh. John Dalberg-Acton Read Quote
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. John Dalberg-Acton Read Quote
