The 26+ Algernon Sidney Quotes

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.

Liars Need To Have Good Memories.

It Is Not Necessary To Light A Candle To The Sun

That Is The Best Government, Which Best Provides For War.

No Right Can Come By Conquest, Unless There Were A Right Of Making That Conquest.

God Leaves To Man The Choice Of Forms In Government; And Those Who Constitute One Form, May Abrogate It.

Men Lived Like Fishes; The Great Ones Devoured The Small.

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.

Swords Were Given To Men, That None Might Be Slaves, But Such As Know Not How To Use Them.

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.

Everyone Sees They Cannot Well Live Asunder, Nor Many Together, Without Some Rule To Which All Must Submit.

We Cannot Distinguish Truth From Falsehood, Right From Wrong, Or Know What Obedience We Owe To The Magistrate, Or What We May Justly Expect From Him, Unless We Know What He Is, Why He Is, And By Whom He Is Made To Be What He Is.... I Cannot Know How To Obey Unless I Know In What, And To Whom; Nor In What Unless I Know What Ought To Be Commanded; Nor What Ought To Be Commanded Unless I Understand The Original Right Of The Commander, Which Is The Great Arcanum.