译文札记（669）：阿克顿勋爵：名言和名著
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阿克顿勋爵：名言和名著
Lord Acton Quote Achieve
POWER AND AUTHORITY
“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 of the certainty of corruption by
authority.”
“Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of
morality.”
“Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority
but force.”
“Everybody likes to get as much power as circumstances
allow, and nobody will vote for a self-denying ordinance.”
“Absolute power demoralizes.”
LIBERTY AND FREEDOM
“Liberty becomes a question of morals more than of
politics.”
“Liberty is the harmony between the will and the
law.”
“Property, not conscience, is the basis of liberty. For the
defence of conscience need not arise. Property is always exposed to
interference. It is the constant object of policy.”
“Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but
perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute
democracy, socialism.”
All liberty is conditional, limited and therefore unequal.
The state can never do what it likes in its own sphere. It is bound
by all kinds of law.”
“Liberty consists in the division of power. Absolutism, in
concentration of power.”
“By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be
protected in doing what he believes is his duty against the
influence of authority and majorities, custom and
opinion.”
“Towns were the nursery of freedom.”
“Conscription is not tolerated by a people that understands
and loves freedom.”
“Political atheism: End justifies the means. This is still
the most widespread of all the opinions inimical to
liberty.”
“Free trade, to improve the condition of the people and fit
them for freedom.”
MORALITY, JUSTICE, AND SIN
“The will of the people cannot make just that which is
unjust.”
“Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not
obedient to circumstances.”
“The notion of sin and repentance waned with the belief in
authority. Men thought they could make good the evil they
did.”
“A public man has no right to let his actions be determined
by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who
accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not
what is advantageous to a party or class.”
“There is another world for the expiation of guilt; but the
wages of folly are payable here below.”
“A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest
man from a liar.”
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
“Political economy cannot be supreme arbiter in politics.
Else you might defend slavery where it is economically sound and
reject it where the economic argument applies against
it.”
“Self-preservation and self-denial, the basis of all
political economy.”
“Politics = the ethics of public life.”
“Example is of the first importance in politics, because
political calculations are so complex that we cannot trust theory,
if we cannot support it by experience.”
“Divided, or rather multiplied, authorities are the
foundation of good government.”
“Bureaucracy is undoubtedly the weapon and sign of a despotic
government, inasmuch as it gives whatever government it serves,
despotic power.”
“Bureaucracy tries to establish so many administrative maxims
that the minister is as narrowly controlled and guided as the
judge.”
“Limitation is essential to authority. A government is
legitimate only if it is effectively limited.”
“Government rules the present. Literature rules the
future.”
“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to
govern. Every class is unfit to govern.”
“It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than
people fit to govern others.”
THE STATE
“Duty [is] not taught by the state.”
“Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be
made bad. Morality depends on liberty.”
FEDERALISM
“Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns
limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is
limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.”
“Federalism: The only barrier to Democracy.”
“Federalism: It is coordination instead of subordination;
association instead of hierarchical order; independent forces
curbing each other; balance, therefore, liberty.”
“The true natural check on absolute democracy is the federal
system, which limits the central government by the powers reserved,
and the state governments by the powers they have
ceded.”
DEMOCRACY
“Democracy generally monopolizes and concentrates
power.”
“The common vice of democracy is disregard for
morality.”
“For it is a most striking thing that the views of pure
democracy...were almost entirely unrepresented in [the American]
convention.”
SOCIALISM
“Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the
strongest execution of power -- power sufficient to interfere with
property.”
INSTITUTIONS
“The object of civil society is justice, not truth, virtue,
wealth, knowledge, glory or power. Justice is followed by equality
and liberty.”
“If we dealt with institutions, antiquity would be low. It
realized no liberty. But in the domain of ideas it ranks
high.”
HISTORY AND PROGRESS
“The value of history is certainty - against which opinion is
broken up.”
“History is a great innovator and breaker of
idols.”
“Progress, the religion of those who have none.”
“Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in
the past does not live in the future.”
ON AMERICA
“In England Parliament is above the law. In America the law
is above Congress.”
“The Americans, having broken the thread in 1776, spliced it
together again. They became eminently conservative in
1787.”
“The great novelty of the American Constitution was that it
imposed checks on the representatives of the people.”
“What the French took from the Americans was their theory of
revolution, not their theory of government — their cutting, not
their sewing.”
“There could never be a revolution less provoked by
oppression than America. Thenceforth the right of a nation to judge
for itself could not be denied.”
“Americans dreaded democracy and contrived their constitution
against it.”
ON OTHER GREAT THINKERS
“The central idea of Machiavelli is that the state power is
not bound by the moral law. The law is not above the state, but
below it.”
“Socrates taught a law independent of the state and superior
to it.”
“Burke's Speeches from 1790 to 1795: They are the law and the
prophets.”
“The Laws of [Plato], the Politics of [Aristotle], are, if I
may trust my own experience the books from which we may learn the
most about the principles of politics.”
OTHER QUOTES
“[On France:] The country that had been so proud of its
kings, of its nobles, and of its chains, could not learn without
teaching that popular power may be tainted with the same poison as
personal power.”
“Inequality: the Basis of society. We combined and put things
in common to protect the weak against the strong.”
“A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has
mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of
Conservatism.”
“It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to
be oppressed by a majority.”
“There should be a law to the People besides its own
will.”
“All partisanship depends on concealment. Mere strong
language and special pleading take in nobody.”
“Official truth is not actual truth.”
“Every doctrine to become popular, must be made superficial,
exaggerated, untrue. We must always distinguish the real essence
from the conveyance, especially in political economy.”
“There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than
the sanctifying of success.”
Lord Acton's 100 Best Books
1.Plato’s Laws—Steinhart’s Introduction.
2.Aristotle’s Politics—Susemihl’s Commentary.
3.Epictetus’ Encheiridion—Commentary of
Simplicius.
4.St. Augustine’s Letters.
5.St. Vincent’s Commonitorium.
6.Hugo of S. Victor—De Sacramentis
7.S. Bonaventura—Breviloquium.
8.S. Thomas Aquinas—Summa contra Gentiles.
9.Dante—Divina Commedia.
10.Raymund of Sabunde—Theologia Naturalis.
11.Nicholas of Cusa—Concordantia Catholica.
12.La Bible de Reuss.
13.Pascal’s Pensées—Havet’s Edition.
14.Malebranche. De Ia Recherche de la Vérité.
15.Baarder—Spekulativ Dogmatik.
16.Molitor—Philosophie der Geschichte.
17.Astié—Esprit de Vinet.
18.Piinjer—Geschichte der Religions-philosophie.
19.Rothe—Theologische Ethik.
20.Martensen—Die Christliche Ethik.
21.Oettingen—Moralstatistik.
22.Hartmann—Phenomenologie des sittlichen
Bewusstseyns.
23.Leibniz—Letters edited by Klopp.
24.Braniss—Geschichte der Philosophie.
25.Fisher—Franz Bacon.
26.Zeller—Neuere Deutsche Philosophie.
27.Bartholomess—Doctrines Religieuses de la Philosophie
Moderne.
28.Guyon—Morale Anglaise.
29.Ritschl—Entstehung der Altkatholischen
Kirche.
30.Loening—Geschichte des Kirchenrechts.
31.Baur—Vorlesungen über Dogmengeschichte.
32.Fénelon—Correspondence.
33.Newman’s Theory of Development.
34.Mozley’s University Sermons.
35.Schneckenburger—Vergleichende Darstellung.
36.Hundeshagen—Kirchenvorfassungsgeschichte.
37.Schweizer—Protestantische Centraldogmen.
38.Gass—Geschichte der Lutherischen Dogmatik.
39.Cart—Histoire do Mouvement Religleux dans le Canton de
Vaud.
40.Blondel—De Ia Primenté.
41.Le Blanc de Beaulieu—Theses.
42.Thierach—Vorlesungen ilber Katholizismus.
43.M5hler—Neue Untersuchungen.
44.Scherer—Mélanges de Critique Religleuse.
45.Hooker—Ecclesiastical Polity.
46.Weingarten—Revolutionskirchen Englands.
47.Kliefoth—Acht Bücher von der Kirche.
48.Laurent—Etudes de l’Histoire de l’Humenité.
49.Ferrari—Révolutions de l’Italie.
50.Lange—Geschichte des Materialismus.
51.Guicciardini—Ricordi Politici.
52.Duperron—Ambassades.
53.Richelieu—Testament Politique.
54.Harringlon’s Writings.
55.Mignet—Négotiations de la Succession
d’Espagne.
56.Rousseau—Considérations sur la Pologne.
57.Foncin—Ministère de Turgot.
58.Burke’s Correspondence.
59.Mémorial de Ste. Hélène.
60.Holtzendorf—Systematische
Rechts-encyklopädie.
61.Thering—Ceist des Röcimischen Rechts.
62.Geib—Strafrecht.
63.Maine—Ancient Law.
64.Gierke—Genossenschaftsrecht.
65.Stahl—Philosophie des Rechts.
66.Gentz—Briefwechsel mit Adam Müller.
67.Vollgraff—Polignosie.
68.Frantz—Kritik aller Parteien.
69.De Maistre—Considérations sur Ia France.
70.Donoso Cortes—Ecrits Politiques.
71.Périn—De Ia Richesse dans les Sociétés
Chrétiennes.
72.Le Play—La Reforme Sociale.
73.Riehl—Die Biirgerliche Sociale.
74.Sismondi—Etudes sur les Constitutions des Peuples
Libres.
75.Rossi—Cours du Droit Constitutionnel.
76.Barante—Vie de Roger Collard.
77.Duvergier de Hauranne—Histoire du Gouvernement
Parlementaire.
78.Madison—Debates of the Congress of
Confederation.
79.Hamilton—The Federalist.
80.Calhoun—Essay on Government.
81.Dumont—Sophismes Anarchiques.
82.Quinet—La Révolution Française,
83.Stein—Sozialismus in Frankreich.
84.Lasselle—System der Erworbenen Rechte.
85.Thomissen—Le Socialisme depuis l’ Antiquité.
86.Considérant—Destinée Sociale.
87.Rosher—Nationalökonomik.
88.[missing]
89.Mill—System of Logic.
90.Coleridge—Aids to Reflection.
91.Radowitz Fragmente.
92.Gioberti—Pensieri.
93.Humboldt—Kosmos.
94.De Candolle—Histoire des Sciences et des
Savants.
95.Darwin—Origin of Species.
96.Littré—Fragrnents de Philosophie.
97.Cournot—Enchaînements des Idées
fondamentales.
98.Monatsschrift des wissenschaftlichen Vereins.
99.[missing]
100.[missing]
