Musk sends Altman Lord Acton quotes on power

From:: Elon Musk
Date:: November 14, 2015 (Sent Saturday 5:19 PM)
To:: Sam Altman
Subject:: Great Acton quotes

"Liberty consists in the division of power. Absolutism, in concentration of power." And "There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men"

About this email

Musk sends Altman two Lord Acton quotations about liberty as the division of power and absolutism as its concentration.

Where it came from

Court record; attribution confirmed.

Musk v. Altman (N.D. Cal., No. 4:24-cv-04722-YGR), Dkt. 379-61 (Exhibit 6)
Mother Jones, 'The Musk v. Altman court battle reveals how the oligarchy is afraid of itself' (Apr 2026)
Business Insider via Yahoo Finance, 'Musk pitched naming OpenAI Freemind in jab at Google, emails show' (Apr 29, 2026)

OpenAI, executive & internal. Tags: lord-acton, power, liberty, philosophy, musk-v-openai

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