What did Lord Acton know?

"I am not thinking of those shining precepts which are the registered property of every school: that is to say – learn as much by writing as by reading; be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites; keep men and things apart; guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own; and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testing; be more severe to ideas than to actions; do not overlook the srtrength of the bad cause or the weakness of the good; never be surprised by the crumbling of an idol or the disclosure of a skeleton; judge talent at its best and character at its worst; suspect power more than vice, and study problems in preference to periods."

Lord Acton: Inaugural lecture on The Study of History Cambridge, June 11 1895

"power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"

http://www.libertystory.net/LSTHINKACTON.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Acton