WIST

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.

John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
“The History of Freedom in Antiquity,” address to the Bridgenorth Institute (28 Feb 1877)

By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes to be his duty against the influences of authority and majorities, custom and opinion.

John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
“The History of Freedom in Antiquity,” address to the Bridgenorth Institute (28 Feb 1877)

Such things will cease to be written when men perceive that truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.

John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
“The Massacre of St Bartholomew,” North British Review (Oct 1869)

Referencing Catholic denial and revisionism over the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Usually elided to start with "Truth is ..."

Collected in The History of Freedom and Other Essays (1907)

The Stoics could only advise the wise man to hold aloof from politics, keeping the unwritten law in his heart. But when Christ said: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s,” those words, spoken on His last visit to the Temple, three days before His death, gave to the civil power, under the protection of conscience, a sacredness it had never enjoyed, and bounds it had never acknowledged; and they were the repudiation of absolutism and the inauguration of freedom.

John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
The History of Freedom in Antiquity (28 Feb 1877)

There 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.

John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
Letter (23 Jan 1861)

There 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.

John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
Letter (23 Jan. 1861)

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

John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
Letter (23 Jan. 1861)

All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.

John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
Letter to Bp. Mandell Creighton (3 Apr 1887)

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.

John Dalberg, Lord Acton (1834-1902) British historian
Letter to Mary Gladstone (24 Mar 1881)