Lord Acton Power Quotations

Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.

There is no evidence to support the belief that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev ever questioned Americas power. He questioned only the President's John F. Kennedys readiness to use it. Elie Abel, The Missile Crisis (1966) Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority.

Absolute power demoralizes.

Great men are almost always bad men.

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, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.