"I have lately undertaken to read Algernon Sidney on government. … As often as I have read it, and fumbled it over, it now excites fresh admiration that this work has excited so little interest in the literary world. As splendid an edition of it as the art of printing can produce — as well for the intrinsic merit of the work, as for the proof it brings of the bitter sufferings of the advocates of liberty from that time to this, and to show the slow progress of moral, philosophical, and political illumination in the world — ought to be now published in America."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Politicians from EnglandExecuted peoplePhilosophers from EnglandDiplomats of the United KingdomPeople from London
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
John Adams, as quoted in Foreword of Discourses Concerning Government (1996) edited by Thomas G. West, p. x.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Algernon_Sidney
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Algernon Sidney
1623 – 1683
Algernon Sidney (also Sydney) (January 1623 – 7 December 1683) was an English politician, political theorist, and opponent of King Charles II of England.
24 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Algernon Sidney →
Related Quotes
"Manus haec inimica tyrannis Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem."
"I thought fit to leave this testimony to the world, that, as I had from my youth endeavored to uphold the Common righ…"
"If his Majesty is resolved to have my head, he may make a whistle of my arse if he pleases."
"We live in an age that makes truth pass for treason, and as I dare not say anything against it, so the ears of those …"
"I am persuaded to believe that God had left nations to the liberty of setting up such governments as best pleased the…"
"Few men would be so gentle as to spare even the best, if by their destruction vile usurpers could become God's anoint…"
"I was long since told that I must die — or the plot die. And lest the means of destroying the best Protestants in Eng…"
"The Lord sanctify these my sufferings unto me, and though I fall as a sacrifice unto the — Idols, suffer not idolatry…"
"Liars ought to have good memories."
"One characteristic feature of Sidney's book associates him with Machiavelli. That is his celebration of warlike virtu…"