Algernon Sidney Quotes.
God leaves to Man the choice of Forms in Government; and those who constitute one Form, may abrogate it.
Laws and constitutions ought to be weighed… to constitute that which is most conducing to the establishment of justice and liberty.
If his Majesty is resolved to have my head, he may make a whistle of my arse if he pleases.
Fruits are always of the same nature with the seeds and roots from which they come, and trees are known by the fruits they bear: as a man begets a man, and a beast a beast, that society of men which constitutes a government upon the foundation of justice.
Liberty cannot be preserved, if the manners of the people are corrupted.
There may be a hundred thousand men in an army, who are all equally free; but they only are naturally most fit to be commanders or leaders, who most excel in the virtues required for the right performance of those offices.
Nay, all laws must fall, human societies that subsist by them be dissolved, and all innocent persons be exposed to the violence of the most wicked, if men might not justly defend themselves against injustice by their own natural right, when the ways prescribed by publick authority cannot be taken.
Swords were given to men, that none might be Slaves, but such as know not how to use them.
Many things are unknown to the wisest, and the best men can never wholly divest themselves of passions and affections… nothing can or ought to be permanent but that which is perfect.
The truth is, man is hereunto led by reason which is his nature.
The general revolt of a Nation cannot be called a Rebellion.
For violence or fraud can create no right.
[I]f vice and corruption prevail, liberty cannot subsist; but if virtue have the advantage, arbitrary power cannot be established.
It is not necessary to light a candle to the sun
[L]iberty cannot be preserved, if the manners of the people are corrupted . . .
Who will wear a shoe that hurts him, because the shoe-maker tells him ’tis well made?
No right can come by conquest, unless there were a right of making that conquest.
That which is not just, is not Law; and that which is not Law, ought not to be obeyed.
The only ends for which governments are constituted, and obedience rendered to them, are the obtaining of and protection; and they who cannot provide for both give the people a right of taking such ways as best please themselves, in order to their own safety.
I will believe in the right of one man to govern a nation despotically when I find a man born unto the world with boots and spurs, and a nation with saddles on their backs.
To depend upon the Will of a Man is Slavery.
Such as have reason, understanding, or common sense, will, and ought to make use of it in those things that concern themselves and their posterity, and suspect the words of such as are interested in deceiving or persuading them not to see with their own eyes.
Everyone sees they cannot well live asunder, nor many together, without some rule to which all must submit.
This submission is a restraint of liberty, but could be of no effect as to the good intended, unless it were general; nor general, unless it were natural.
All the nations they had to deal with, had the same fate.
