"Machiavel, discoursing on these matters, finds virtue to……" — Algernon Sidney
"Machiavel, discoursing on these matters, finds virtue to be so essentially necessary to the establishment and preservation of liberty, that he thinks it impossible for a corrupted people to set up a good government, or for a tyranny to be introduced if they be virtuous; and makes this conclusion, 'That where the matter (that is, the body of the people) is not corrupted, tumults and disorders do not hurt; and where it is corrupted, good laws do no good:' which being confirmed by reason and experience, I think no wise man has ever contradicted him."
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Algernon Sidney
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34 Quotes by Algernon Sidney
Algernon Sidney has 34 quotes on this site.
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[L]iberty cannot be preserved, if the manners of the people are corrupted . . .
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[A]ll popular and well-mixed governments [republics] . . . are ever established by wise and good men, and can never…
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Fruits are always of the same nature with the seeds and roots from which they come, and trees are known…
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[I]f vice and corruption prevail, liberty cannot subsist; but if virtue have the advantage, arbitrary power cannot be established.
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If the public safety be provided, liberty and propriety secured, justice administered, virtue encouraged, vice suppressed, and the true interest…
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Violence and fraud can create no right.
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The only ends for which governments are constituted, and obedience rendered to them, are the obtaining of and protection; and…
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Nay, all laws must fall, human societies that subsist by them be dissolved, and all innocent persons be exposed to…
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Everyone sees they cannot well live asunder, nor many together, without some rule to which all must submit.
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God leaves to Man the choice of Forms in Government; and those who constitute one Form, may abrogate it.
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Laws and constitutions ought to be weighed... to constitute that which is most conducing to the establishment of justice and…
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Many things are unknown to the wisest, and the best men can never wholly divest themselves of passions and affections...…
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