“There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.”

— John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton

Letter to Mary Gladstone (1881)
Context: There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities, such as More, Bacon, Grotius, Pascal, Cromwell, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Napoleon, Pitt, etc. The result would be an Encyclopedia of Error.

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John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton 112

British politician and historian 1834–1902

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