阿克顿勋爵（英语简称：Lord Acton，1834年1月10日－1902年6月19日），英国剑桥大学历史系教授，历史学家，理论政治家。19世纪英国知识界和政治生活中最有影响的人物之一。著名的自由主义大师。“权力导致腐败，绝对的权力导致绝对的腐败。”这句自由主义名言就出自他的《自由与权力》。
阿克顿勋爵名言：
1.“Power tends to corruption; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
权力导致腐败，绝对的权力导致绝对的腐败。
2.“Great men are almost always bad men.”
伟人几乎总是坏人。
3.“The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.”
强者用匕首，弱者才用海绵。
4.“There is no worse heresy than the fact that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”
最糟糕的异端邪说莫过于该职位将其持有者神圣化。
5.“There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a hand shake, or a fond eye.”
没有一个灵魂不需要向别人乞讨，一个微笑，一次握手，或者一个深情的眼神。
6.“The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
民主的邪恶无处不在，那就是多数党的暴政，或者更确切地说，那一政党的暴政，并不总是多数党的暴政，它通过武力或欺诈手段成功地进行了选举。
7.“Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favorites.”
不要满足于最好的书；要从其他人那里寻求侧面知识；不要有特别喜欢的。
8.“The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.”
政治学是一门由历史的溪流沉淀而成的科学，就像河中沙子中的金粒；对过去的认识，对经验揭示的真理的记录，作为行动的工具和创造未来的力量，是非常实用的。
9.“[History is] not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.”
（历史）不是记忆的负担，而是灵魂的启迪。
10.“And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
记住，当你的权力集中在少数人手中时，往往会有流氓心态的人获得控制权。历史已经证明了这一点。一切权力都会腐败；绝对的权力导致绝对的腐败。
11.“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.”
危险不在于某个阶级不适合治理：每个阶级都不适合治理。
12.“Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.”
自由不是做我们喜欢做的事的权力，而是做我们应该做的事的权利。
13.“There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.”
没有什么错误是如此可怕，以至于它无法在最能干的人中找到捍卫者。
14.“Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.”
除了大自然的狂野力量，这个世界上没有任何一种运动不是起源于希腊的。
15.“At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects differed from their own; and this association, which is always dangerous, has been sometimes disastrous, by giving to opponents just grounds of opposition.”
在任何时候，真正的自由之友都是罕见的，它的胜利归功于少数民族，他们通过与目标不同的辅助者联系而占了上风；而这种总是危险的联系有时是灾难性的，因为它给对手提供了正当的反对理由。
