It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
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By a series of violent shocks, the nations in succession have struggled to shake off the Past, to reverse the action of Time and the verdict of success, and to rescue the world from the reign of the dead.
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Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
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Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral laws are written on the table of eternity.
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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad man.
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So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it.
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Guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own; and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testing.
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The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.
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A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
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Learn as much by writing as by reading.
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There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.
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The man who prefers his country before any other duty duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority.
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The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
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To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.
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Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
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The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority.
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