"Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity."

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Historians from EnglandMembers of the Parliament of the United KingdomBritish peersUniversity of Oxford facultyNon-fiction authors from the United Kingdom
Original Language: English

Sources

Letter (23 January 1861), published in Lord Acton and his Circle (1906) by Abbot Gasquet, Letter 74

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton%2C_1st_Baron_Acton

Letter (23 January 1861), published in Lord Acton and his Circle (1906) by Abbot Gasquet, Letter 74