Great men are almost always bad men.
Lord ActonRead
Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.
Interpretation
Moral principles remain unchanged over time and are not influenced by circumstances.
This quote by Lord Acton emphasizes the idea that true moral values are universal and timeless, asserting that ethics should not be swayed by specific situations or contextual pressures. Instead, moral precepts stand as consistent guidelines for behavior, regardless of changing societal norms or circumstances, highlighting the importance of steadfastness in oneβs ethical beliefs.
In practice
In a discussion about ethical decision-making during a seminar.
Great men are almost always bad men.
Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together. Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end...liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition...The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
You should not have any special fondness for a particular weapon, or anything else, for that matter. Too much is the same as not enough. Without imitating anyone else, you should have as much weaponry as suits you.
Conventions vs. spontaneity. This is a dialectical choice, it depends on the assessment you make of your own times. If you judge that your own time is ridden with empty insincere formalities, you plump for spontaneity, for indecorous behavior even...Much of morality is the task of compensating for one's age. One assumes unfashionable virtues, in an indecorous time. In a time hollowed out by decorum, one must school oneself in spontaneity.
There is no fundamental difference in the ways of thinking of primitive and civilized man. A close connection between race and personality has never been established.
The idea that there is a God who rewards and punishes, and who can reward, if he so wishes, the meanest and vilest of the human race, so that he will be eternally happy, and can punish the best of the human race, so that he will be eternally miserable, is subversive of all morality.
Tie two birds together. They will not be able to fly, even though they now have four wings.
Take me and cast me where you will; I shall still be possessor of the divinity within me, serene and content.
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