Lord John Dalberg-Acton, Author at The Imaginative Conservative

About Lord John Dalberg-Acton

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (January 10, 1834 - June 19, 1902)—known as Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Bt from 1837 to 1869 and usually referred to simply as Lord Acton—was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer.

The Ideal Friend of the Honest Historian

By Lord John Dalberg-Acton|2016-06-15T09:15:46-05:00June 19th, 2016|Categories: History, Quotation, Virtue|

Don’t let us utter too much evil of party writers, for we owe them much. If not honest, they are helpful, as the advocates aid the judge; and they would not have done so well from mere inspiration of disinterested veracity. We might wait long if we watched for the man who knows the whole [...]

Advice to Persons about to Write History

By Lord John Dalberg-Acton|2019-03-05T14:02:44-06:00June 19th, 2015|Categories: Christendom, History|

Advice to persons about to write History: Don’t. Visit the Monte Purgatorio, as Austin called the Magnesian rock that yields Epsom Salts; or: Get rid of Hole and Corner Buffery. In the Moral Sciences, Prejudice is Dishonesty. A Historian has to fight against temptations special to his mode of life, temptations from Country, Class, Church, [...]