… is from page 562 of the 1988 collection of Lord Acton’s writings (edited by the late J. Rufus Fears), Essays in Religion, Politics, and Morality; specifically, it’s a note drawn from Acton’s extensive papers at Cambridge University; (I can find no date for this passage):
Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power – power sufficient to interfere with property.
DBx: Those who clamor for socialism – whether full-on or lite – mistake what they call “concentrations of wealth” for concentrations of power. And to solve this imaginary problem, those who clamor for socialism are eager to create a concentration of power that is genuine and, hence, genuinely dangerous.
