ALGERNON SIDNEY

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

Everyone sees they cannot well live asunder, nor many together, without some rule to which all must submit.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

To depend upon the Will of a Man is Slavery.

Liars need to have good memories.

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.

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.

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.

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

The common Notions of Liberty are not from School Divines, but from Nature.

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

The best Governments of the World have bin composed of Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy.

'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.

All the nations they had to deal with, had the same fate.

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

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

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

We need no other proof ... than what we have seen in our own country, where in a few years good discipline and a just encouragement given to those who did well, produced more examples of pure, complete, incorruptible, and invincible virtue than Rome or Greece could ever boast

There is a rich and haughty King who is blessed with such neighbours as are not likely to disturb him and has nothing to fear from his miserable subjects; but the whole body of that state is full of boils and wounds and putrid sores. There is no real strength in it. The people are so unwilling to serve him that he is said to have put to death above fourscore thousand of his own soldiers within the space of fifteen years for flying from their colours, and if he were vigorously attacked, little help could be expected from a discontented nobility or a starving and despairing people.

All human constitutions are subject to corruption and must perish unless they are timely renewed and reduced to their first principles.