Quote#Self
Don't suspect me of denying the principle of nationality altogether.…
Quote byJohn Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton · 1834–1902
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter to William Ewart Gladstone (26 February 1888), quoted in J. N. Figgis and R. V. Laurence (eds.), Selections from the Correspondence of the First Lord Acton, Vol. I (1917), p. 185.
English (original)
Don't suspect me of denying the principle of nationality altogether. Only, if I were to say as much as you say, I should be afraid of being driven to admit the priority of National Independence before individual liberty,—of the figurative conscience before the real. We do not find that Nationalists are always Liberals, especially in Austria.
— John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
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