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Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely Meaning. Definition: Having power corrupts a man, or lessens his morality, and the more power a man has, the more corrupted he will become. This idiom means that those in power often do not have the people’s best interests in mind.
The quote Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely comes from the nineteenth-century English historian Lord Acton (1834–1902) in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton about how historians should judge the abuse of power by past rulers, especially popes.
Apr 14, 2023 · Paraphrased variant: All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The inflexible integrity of the moral code is, to me, the secret of the authority, the dignity, the utility of History.
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, more commonly known as Lord Acton, was a prolific scholar, writer statesman, and historian, known as "the magistrate of history," as well as the namesake of the Acton Institute. Publications Religion & Liberty. Who is Lord Acton?
By. Johann N. Neem. Over a century ago, the British historian Lord Acton warned that absolute power corrupts absolutely. While he acknowledged that humanity may be capable of much good, Acton worried that possessing too much power would tempt us to do wrong. And it has.
Lord Acton is popularly remembered for his pungent aphorisms – “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” – but of far deeper significance was his lifelong study of the history of freedom. It was a work never completed.
In one of these 3 letters to Archbishop Creighton Lord Acton makes his famous statement about “power corrupts and absolute power absolutely”. He also makes other remarks about the proper role for moral judgments in history.
