[I]f vice and corruption prevail, liberty cannot subsist; but if virtue have the advantage, arbitrary power cannot be established.
Interpretation
Liberty depends on virtue, not corruption; without virtue, oppressive power thrives.
Algernon Sidney suggests that true liberty can only flourish in an environment of virtue and moral integrity. When vice and corruption dominate society, the foundations of freedom become unstable, allowing arbitrary power to take root. Conversely, when virtue prevails, it serves as a safeguard against tyranny and oppression, reinforcing the importance of moral character in the maintenance of liberty.
In practice
In a speech about governance, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of ethics in political leadership.
Fruits are always of the same nature with the seeds and roots from which they come, and trees are known by the fruits they bear: as a man begets a man, and a beast a beast, that society of men which constitutes a government upon the foundation of justice, virtue, and the common good, will always have men to promote those ends; and that which intends the advancement of one man's desire and vanity, will abound in those that will foment them.
In this quest to seek and find God in all things, there is still an area of uncertainty. There must be. If a person says that he met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good.
We should be slower to think that the man at his worst is the real man, and certain that the better we are ourselves the less likely is he to be at his worst in our company. Every time he talks away his own character before us he is signifying contempt for ours.
...the more a person becomes spiritually minded or advances towards God, the more tolerant he becomes and the less differentiation he sees.
Don't tell me to believe. Don't tell me to believe in the same God or laws that men believe in who commit these murders. Don't tell me to believe that God can bless this country and that men are judged by their peers. Who among his peers judged him? Was I there? Was the minister there? Was Harry Williams there? Was Farrell Jarreau? Was my aunt? Was Vivian? No, his peers did not judge him, and I will not believe.
God created the visible world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of his wisdom
The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. ... This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.