All Posts Tagged With: "Lord Acton"
The Burden of Responsibility
Life is an unending series of choices and, therefore, “problems in living.” Ordinary choices—what to have for breakfast—we ignore as trivial. Extraordinary choices—whether to kill ourselves (or worse)—we dismiss as the symptoms of mental illness. The profession of psychiatry rests on, and caters to, the ubiquitous human desire to avoid, evade, and deny the very [...]
1Dec2008 | Thomas Szasz | 2 comments | ContinuedStates’ Rights Revisited
Lamenting the Supreme Court’s recent batch of pro-federalism decisions, the New York Times termed the Court’s newfound affinity for states’ rights “Supreme mischief,” “deeply disturbing” to right-thinkers everywhere. One expects such talk from dedicated cheerleaders for centralized power. What’s more disturbing, however, is the extent to which the Times’s perspective has gained credence among advocates [...]
1Dec1999 | Gene Healy | 7 comments | ContinuedWho Said What About Liberty? (a quiz)
The literature of liberty offers double pleasure. You can often enjoy both dynamic ideas and great eloquence. Just for fun, see if you can match the following unforgettable quotations with their authors. The quotations are representative views of many of the greatest thinkers in the history of liberty: A. Lord Acton B. Benjamin Franklin C. [...]
1Jul1997 | FEE Admin | 1 comment | ContinuedLord Acton–Political Power Corrupts
Mr. Powell is editor of Laissez Faire Books and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, American Heritage, and more than three dozen other publications. Copyright © 1996 by Jim Powell. Few recognized the dangers of political power as clearly as Lord [...]
1Jun1996 | Jim Powell | 2 comments | ContinuedIncome Distribution
Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on “income distribution,” the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned. People paying each other for goods and services generate income. While many people’s entire income comes from a salary paid to them by a given employer, many others collect individual fees for [...]
1Jan1996 | Thomas Sowell | 0 comments | ContinuedThe History of Freedom
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This one sentence, from a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, not from some public document, has served to immortalize Lord Acton’s thought for posterity. And yet, like most short summaries, it hides so much of central importance to Lord Acton that it is almost misleading. What [...]
1Jan1995 | Salim Rashid | 0 comments | Continued-
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