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The great object, in trying to understand history, political,…

Quote byJohn Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton · 1834–1902

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter to Mary Gladstone (Mar 15, 1880) Letters of Lord Acton to Mary Gladstone (1905) ed., , p. 99..

English (original)

The great object, in trying to understand history, political, religious, literary or scientific, is to get behind men and to grasp ideas. Ideas have a radiation and development, an ancestry and posterity of their own

— John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton

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