Algernon Sidney Quotes

22 Sourced Quotes

That which is not just, is not Law; and that which is not Law, ought not to be obeyed.

Algernon Sidney
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.

Algernon Sidney
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.

Algernon Sidney
Swords were given to men, that none might be Slaves, but such as know not how to use them.

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

Algernon Sidney
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.

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

Algernon Sidney
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.

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

Algernon Sidney
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.

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

Algernon Sidney
If the public safety be provided, liberty and propriety secured, justice administered, virtue encouraged, vice suppressed, and the true interest of the nation advanced, the ends of government are accomplished...

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

Algernon Sidney
If his Majesty is resolved to have my head, he may make a whistle of my arse if he pleases.

Algernon Sidney
We live in an age that makes truth pass for treason, and as I dare not say anything against it, so the ears of those that are about me will probably be found too tender to hear it. This my trial and condemnation do sufficiently evidence.

Algernon Sidney
I am persuaded to believe that God had left nations to the liberty of setting up such governments as best pleased themselves, and that magistrates were set up for the good of nations, not nations for the honor and glory of magistrates. That the right and power of magistrates in every country was that which the laws of that country made it to be. That these laws are to be observed and the oaths taken by rulers to be kept. And that having the force of contracts between magistrates and people, they cannot be violated without danger of dissolving the whole fabric.

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

Algernon Sidney
The law is established, which no passion can disturb. 'Tis void of desire and fear, lust and anger…'Tis deaf, inexorable, inflexible.

Algernon Sidney
Few men would be so gentle as to spare even the best, if by their destruction vile usurpers could become God's anointed, and by the most execrable wickedness invest themselves with that divine character.

Algernon Sidney
The Lord sanctify these my sufferings unto me, and though I fall as a sacrifice unto the — Idols, suffer not idolatry to be established in this land. Bless thy people and save them. Defend thy own cause and those that defend it. Stir up such as are faint. Direct those that are willing. Confirm those that waver. Give wisdom and integrity unto all. Order all things so as they may most redound unto thine own glory. Grant that I may die glorifying thee for all thy mercies and that (as the last) thou hast permitted me to be singled out as witness of thy truth, and even by the confession of my oppressors, for that Old Cause in which I was from my youth engaged and for which thou hast often and wonderfully declared thyself.

Algernon Sidney
I thought fit to leave this testimony to the world, that, as I had from my youth endeavored to uphold the Common rights of mankind, the lawes of this land, and the true Protestant religion, against corrupt principles, arbitrary power and Popery, I doe now willingly lay down my life for the same; and having a sure witness within me, that God doth absolve me, and uphold me, in the utmost extremityes, am very littell sollicitous, though man doth condemne me.

Algernon Sidney
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, virtue, and the common good, will always have men to promote those ends; and that which intends the advancement of one man's desire and vanity, will abound in those that will foment them.

Algernon Sidney