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Algernon Sidney

1622 - 1683

About the Author

Algernon Sidney (1622-1683) was a radical English republican political theorist who challenged Filmer’s theory of the divine right of kings. He was executed for treason in 1683.

In The Library:

• author: Discourses Concerning Government (LF ed.) (1698)
• author: Discourses Concerning Government (1698 ed.) (1698)

Quotations:

• Algernon Sidney’s Motto was that his Hand (i.e. his pen) was an Enemy to all Tyrants (1660) (9 August, 2004)
• Sidney argues that a People’s liberty is a gift of nature and exists prior to any government (1683) (18 November, 2010)
• Algernon Sidney on the need for the law to be “deaf, inexorable, inflexible” and not subject to the arbitrary will of the ruler (1698) (1 March, 2011)
• Algernon Sidney argues that a law that is not just is not a law (1683) (13 December, 2012)