Whenever a single definite object is made the supreme end of the State, be it the advantage of a class, the safety of the power of the country, the greatest happiness of the greatest number, or the support of any speculative idea, the State becomes for the time inevitably absolute. Liberty alone demands for its realisation the limitation of the public authority, for liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition.


"Nationality" in Home and Foreign Review (July 1862); republished in The History of Freedom and Other Essays (1907), p. 288

John Dalberg-Acton Quotes

Whenever a single definite object is made the supreme end of the State, be it the advantage of a class, the safety of the power of the country, the...

Whenever a single definite object is made the supreme end of the State, be it the advantage of a class, the safety of the power of the country, the...

Whenever a single definite object is made the supreme end of the State, be it the advantage of a class, the safety of the power of the country, the...

Whenever a single definite object is made the supreme end of the State, be it the advantage of a class, the safety of the power of the country, the...