Interest Quote by Ethan Allen
“While we are under the tyranny of Priests, it will ever be their interest, to invalidate the law of nature and reason, in order to establish systems incompatible therewith.”
About This Quote
Source Treat: Letters from the Frontiers, 1775
Authority that opposes natural law seeks to replace it with arbitrary rules, preserving its own power.
In simple terms: Oppressive authority undermines natural reason.
Key Takeaway
Question and uphold natural reason.
Themes
authority
reason
law
power
religion
Mood
critical
defiant
Type
philosophical
political
When to use this quote
- political discourse
- legal reform
- educational curricula
- faith communities
Key Concepts
natural law
tyranny
legitimacy
Questions to Reflect On
- How does you identify when authority conflicts with nature?
- What safeguards protect natural law?
A Different Perspective
May ignore beneficial traditions that align with reason.
![“[The aim of science is] to explain what so far has taken to be an explicans, such as a law of nature. The task of empirical science constantly renews itself. We may go on forever, proceeding to explanations of a higher and higher universality...” quote by Karl Popper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f4e/karl-popper-2167_aim_the-aim-of-science-is-to-explain-what-so_121944.jpg)
![“[A]s it must be admitted that the remedy under the Constitution lies where it has been marked out by the Constitution; and that no appeal can be consistently made from that remedy by those who were and still profess to be parties to it, but the appeal to the parties themselves having an authority…” quote by James Madison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/803/james-madison-373_appeals_a-s-it-must-be-admitted-that-the-remedy_69293.jpg)
![“Next came the Patent laws. These began in England in 1624; and, in this country, with the adoption of our constitution. Before then [these?], any man might instantly use what another had invented; so that the inventor had no special advantage from his own invention. The patent system changed this…” quote by Abraham Lincoln](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/449/abraham-lincoln-88_adoption_next-came-the-patent-laws-these-began-in_1828.jpg)
