[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.
The sage's Way is to act and not to contend.
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
I do not believe that true optimism can come about except through tragedy.
Ladylike is the beastliest word there is, I think. If a girl isn't a lady, it isn't worth while to be only like one, she'd better let it alone and be a free and happy bounder.
Spirit is the vast stillness which is behind all created things.
There are people who think that plunder loses all its immorality as soon as it becomes legal. Personally, I cannot imagine a more alarming situation.
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