41 Quotes by Algernon Sidney

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

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

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.

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

It is not necessary to light a candle to the sun

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.

Liars need to have good memories.

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

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 . . .