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… is from page 646 of the 1988 collection of Lord Acton’s writings (edited by the late J. Rufus Fears), Essays in Religion, Politics, and Morality [2]; specifically, it’s a note drawn from Acton’s extensive papers at Cambridge University; (I can find no date for this passage):
Government rules the present. Literature rules the future.
DBx: The course of human events is determined overwhelmingly, and at root, by ideas. We must – if as a species we are to thrive rather than merely survive – get our ideas right. If we don’t, we’ll still lord it over the likes of dogs, donkeys, and deer – but we will live little better than any other of our great-ape relatives.