Quote#Politics & Power
Democracy claims to be not only supreme, without authority above, but…
Quote byJohn Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton · 1834–1902
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Review of Democracy in Europe (1878).
English (original)
Democracy claims to be not only supreme, without authority above, but absolute, without independence below; to be its own master, not a trustee. The old sovereigns of the world are exchanged for a new one, who may be flattered and deceived, but whom it is impossible to corrupt or to resist, and to whom must be rendered the things that are Caesar's and also the things that are God’s.
— John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
More from John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
The English constitution was excellent until removed by foreign writers into the domain of theory, when in direct contradiction with its nature and origin it came to be admired as a common representative government.
According to the prevailing doctrine, which derives power from the people, and deposits it ultimately in their hands, the state is omnipotent over the individual, whose only remnant of freedom is then the participation in the exercise of …
Almost all that has been done for the good of the people has been done since the right lost the monopoly of power, since the rights of property were discovered to be not unlimited.
We must not pursue science for ends independent of science. It must be pursued for its own sake, and must lead to its own results.
The Catholic notion, defining liberty not as the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought, denies that general interests can supersede individual rights. It condemns, therefore, the theory of the
it is always a delusive freedom, founded on a servitude more or less disguised.