“I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task.”
The History of Freedom in Christianity (1877)
Context: I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task. In the ages of which I have spoken, the history of freedom was the history of the thing that was not. But since the Declaration of Independence, or, to speak more justly, since the Spaniards, deprived of their king, made a new government for themselves, the only known forms of Liberty, Republics and Constitutional Monarchy, have made their way over the world.
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John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton 112
British politician and historian 1834–1902Related quotes
“My end is my beginning, and my beginning my end.”
Ma fin est mon commencement
Et mon commencement ma fin.
"Ma fin est mon commencement", line 1; translation from Donald N. Ferguson A History of Musical Thought (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, [1935] 1948) p. 94.
Source: The Chronicles of Prydain (1964–1968), Book V : The High King (1968), Chapter 21
Context: “Dyrnwyn is yours,” Gwydion said, “as it was meant to be.”
“Yet Arawn is slain,” Taran replied. “Evil is conquered and the blade’s work done.”
“Evil conquered?” said Gwydion. “You have learned much, but learn this last and hardest of lessons. You have conquered only the enchantments of evil. That was the easiest of your tasks, only a beginning, not an ending. Do you believe evil itself so quickly overcome? Not so long as men still hate and slay each other, when greed and anger goad them. Against these even a flaming sword cannot prevail, but only that portion of good in all men’s hearts whose flame can never be quenched.
Miles From Nowhere
Song lyrics, Tea for the Tillerman (1970)
"Mary, Queen of Scots" The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Ed. Elizabeth Knowles. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t115.e2074
As quoted in "Obama arrives in Cuba; hopes visit will usher in change" by Kevin Liptak, at CNN (20 March 2016) http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/20/politics/obama-cuba-arrival-change/
2016
