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date: 18 February 2025

Lord Acton 1834–1902
British historian 

  1. Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
    The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1907), lecture delivered 26 February 1877
  2. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
    letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 3 April 1887; see Pitt
  3. Beware of too much explaining, lest we end by too much excusing.
    attributed by Acton to the Duc de Broglie, Lectures in Modern History (1906), lecture delivered Cambridge, June 1895