Lord Acton Dalberg

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

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

Patriotism is in political life what faith is in religion.

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.

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

Learn as much by writing as by reading.

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

There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men. . . .

Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.