… is from page 512 of the 1988 collection of Lord Acton’s writings and notes to himself (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:
Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.


Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
