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All hereditary Government is in its nature tyranny. An heritable crown, or an heritable throne, or by what other fanciful name such things may be called, have no other significant explanation than that mankind are heritable property. To inherit a Government, is to inherit the people, as if they were flocks and herds.

— Joseph Priestley The Rights of Man (1791)

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More quotes by Joseph Priestley

The unity of God is a doctrine on which the greatest stress is laid in the whole system of revelation.

An History of the Corruptions of Christianity (1782)

The History of Electricity is a field full of pleasing objects, according to all the genuine and universal principles of taste, deduced from a knowledge of human nature.

The History and Present State of Electricity (1767)

As the greatest things often take their rise from the smallest beginnings, so the worst things sometimes proceed from good intentions.

An History of the Corruptions of Christianity (1782)

The mind of man will never be able to contemplate the being, perfections, and providence of God without meeting with inexplicable difficulties.

Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion (1772)

Governors will never be awed by the voice of the people, so long as it is a mere voice, without overt-acts.

Essay on the First Principles of Government, 2nd Edition (1771)

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The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

C. S. Lewis God in the Dock (1970)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Joseph Priestley (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.