Quotes from Algernon Sidney

A general presumption that Icings will govern well, is not a sufficient security to the People... those who subjected themselves to the will of a man were governed by a beast.

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.

God leaves to Man the choice of Forms in Government; and those who constitute one Form, may abrogate it.

Liars need to have good memories.

No right can come by conquest, unless there were a right of making that conquest.

This hand, unfriendly to tyrants,Seeks with the sword placid repose under liberty.

It is not necessary to light a candle to the sun.

Laws and constitutions ought to be weighed... to constitute that which is most conducing to the establishment of justice and liberty.

Liberty cannot be preserved, if the manners of the people are corrupted.

To depend upon the Will of a Man is Slavery.

Men lived like fishes; the great ones devoured the small.

God helps those who help themselves.

The highest places are always slippery: Men's eyes dazzle when they are carried up to them; and falls from them are mortal. Few kings or tyrants, says Juvenal, go down to the grave in peace...

No man can justly impose anything upon those who owe him nothing. . . . Whosoever therefore . . . grounds his pretensions of right upon usurpation and tyranny, declares himself to be, like Nimrod, a usurper and a tyrant, that is an enemy to God and man, and to have no right at all.

Coriolanus'] violence and pride overbalanced his services; and he that would submit to no law, was justly driven out from the society which could subsist only by law.

He that builds a city, and does not intend it should increase, commits as great an absurdity, as if he should desire his child might ever continue under the same weakness in which he is born. If it do not grow, it must pine and perish; for in this world nothing is permanent; that which does not grow better will grow worse.

If vice and corruption prevail, liberty cannot subsist; but if virtue have the advantage, arbitrary power cannot be established.

A well-governed state is as fruitful to all good purposes, as the seven-headed serpent is said to have been in evil; when one head is cut off, many rise up in the place of it. Good order being once established, makes good men...

That is the best Government, which best provides for war.

The general revolt of a Nation cannot be called a Rebellion.

'Tis hard to comprehend how one man can come to be master of many, equal to himself in right, unless it be by consent or by force.

Who will wear a shoe that hurts him, because the shoe-maker tells him 'tis well made?

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.

The truth is, man is hereunto led by reason which is his nature.