Lord Acton Quotes

For the first time in human history, there seems to be a radical increase in the proportion reaching principled morality.

All history is man's efforts to realize ideals.

Our conscience is not the vessel of eternal verities. It grows with our social life, and a new social condition means a radical change in conscience.

Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.

We must wait for the slow progress of moral causes

The supreme purpose of history is a better world.

The beginnings of moral enterprises in this world are never to be measured by any apparent growth. ... At length comes the sudden ripeness and the full success, and he who is called in at the final moment deems this success his own. He is but the reaper and not the labourer. Other men sowed and tilled and he but enters into their labours.

The most significant change wrought by adolescence is the taming of the ideals by which a person measures himself. . . . Love of oneself becomes love of the species. Conscience is pointed to the future, whispering permission to reach beyond the safety net of our ordinary and finite human existence.

Moral progress has consisted in the main of protest against cruel customs, and of attempts to enlarge human sympathy.

We must distinguish between spirituality in general terms, which aims to make us better people, and religion. Adopting a religion remains optional, but becoming a better human being is essential.

He who has made great moral progress ceases to pray

Social advance depends quite as much upon an increase in moral sensibility as it does upon a sense of duty.

For youthful faults ripe virtues shall atone.

The call to religion is not a call to be better than your fellows, but to be better than yourself. Religion is relative to the individual.

I am afraid that if you want to go down into history you'll have to do something for it.

The saved man is not a perfect man, but his heart's desire is to become perfect.

An education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking; it involves the spiritual development of man, the enhancement of his value as an individual, and the preparation of young people to understand the times in which they live.

As history proves abundantly, mathematical achievement, whatever its intrinsic worth, is the most enduring of all.

Man's material discoveries have outpaced his moral progress.

The history of mankind is his character.

I couldn't help what I'd done before I learned it was wrong. I could only do better in the future.

There is no estimating the wit and wisdom concealed and latent in our lower fellow mortals until made manifest by profound experiences; for it is through suffering that dogs as well as saints are developed and made perfect.

But also out here in this dreary, difficult war, I think history will record that this may have been one of Americas finest hours, because we took a difficult task and we succeeded.

Perhaps the greatest role of parenting, more than directing and telling children what to do, [is] helping [children] connect with their own gifts, particularly conscience.

Our moral faculties must be placed highest, else they can no more flourish than could a plant growing under the shade and drip of trees.