Quotes by Lord Acton Dalberg

Patriotism is in political life what faith is in religion.

Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility.

Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral laws are written on the table of eternity.

Guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own; and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testing.

Learn as much by writing as by reading.

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

Looking outward to the blackness of space, sprinkled with the glory of a universe of lights, I saw majesty - but no welcome. Below was a welcoming planet. There, contained in the thin, moving, incredibly fragile shell of the biosphere is everything that is dear to you, all the human drama and comedy. That's where life is; that's where all the good stuff is.

Be more severe to ideas than to actions; do not over look the strength of the bad cause or the weakness of the good.

Everything secret degenerates; nothing is safe that does not bear discussion and publicity.

To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.