Joseph Priestley Quotes
Joseph Priestley was an English natural philosopher, theologian, and political theorist, and one of the founding figures of English Unitarianism. Best known to the history of science as the discoverer of oxygen and several other gases, he was equally significant as a defender of civil and religious liberty in support of the American and French Revolutions. The quotes below are attributed to Joseph Priestley, organized by topic.
Browse Joseph Priestley by topic
Joseph Priestley on Freedom
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Attributed to Joseph Priestley:
“Nothing in human life is more valuable than civil and religious liberty.”
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Attributed to Joseph Priestley:
“All progress depends on the freedom of inquiry.”
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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.”
The Rights of Man (1791) -
“Section I, "Of the First Principles of Government, and the different kinds of Liberty"”
Essay on the First Principles of Government, 2nd Edition (1771)
Joseph Priestley on God
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Attributed to Joseph Priestley:
“Reason and revelation, both gifts of God, cannot truly conflict.”
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“When we say there is a GOD, we mean that there is an intelligent designing cause of what we see in the world around us, and a being who was himself uncaused.”
Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion(1772–1774) | Vol. I : Part I : The Being and Attributes of God, § 1 : Of the existence of God, and those attributes which art deduced from his being considered as uncaused himself, and the cause of every thing els -
“From the fame opinion of a soul distinct from the body came the practice of praying, first for the dead, and then to them with a long train of other absurd opinions, and superstitious practices.”
An History of the Corruptions of Christianity(1782) | General Conclusions, Part I : Containing Considerations addressed to Unbelievers and especially to Mr. Gibbon -
“Vol. I : Part I : The Being and Attributes of God, § 1 : Of the existence of God, and those attributes which art deduced from his being considered as uncaused himself, and the cause of every thing else (1772)”
Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion(1772–1774)
Joseph Priestley on Justice
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“The Rights of Man (1791)”
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 on Knowledge
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Attributed to Joseph Priestley:
“Education has the most extensive influence on human happiness.”
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“[The doctrine of air] I was led into in consequence of inhabiting a house adjoining to a public brewery, where I at first amused myself with making experiments on the fixed air [carbon dioxide] which I found ready made in the process of fermentation . When I removed from that house I was under the necessity of making the fixed air for myself; and one experiment leading to another, as I have distinctly and faithfully noted in my various publications on the subject, I by degrees contrived a convenient apparatus for the purpose, but of the cheapest kind.”
Letter to Dr. Richard Price (Oct. 19, 1771) as quoted in John Towill Rutt , Life and Correspondence of Joseph Priestley (1831) -
“It is known to all persons who are conversant in experimental philosophy, that there are many little attentions and precautions necessary to be observed in the conducting of experiments, which cannot well be described in words, but which it is needless to describe, since practice will necessarily suggest them; though, like all other arts in which the hands and fingers are made use of, it is only much practice that can enable a person to go through complex experiments, of this or any kind, with ease and readiness.”
Experiments and Observations of Different Kinds of Air (1775) -
“Experiments and Observations of Different Kinds of Air (1775)”
It is known to all persons who are conversant in experimental philosophy, that there are many little attentions and precautions necessary to be observed in the conducting of experiments, which cannot well be described in words, but which it is needless to describe, since practice will necessarily suggest them; though, like all other arts in which the hands and fingers are made use of, it is only m -
“We more easily give our assent to any proposition when the person who contends for it appears, by his manner of delivering himself, to have a perfect knowledge of the subject of it.”
A Course of Lectures on Oratory and Criticism (1777), Part III, Lecture XVI, p. 116 -
“Memoirs of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Priestly (1809). p. 1”
Having thought it right to leave behind me some account of my friends and benefactors , it is in a manner necessary that I also give some account of myself ; and as the like has been done by many persons, and for reasons which posterity has approved, I make no further apology for following their example. If my writings in general have been useful to my contemporaries, I hope that this account of m
Joseph Priestley on Life
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“[The doctrine of air] I was led into in consequence of inhabiting a house adjoining to a public brewery, where I at first amused myself with making experiments on the fixed air [carbon dioxide] which I found ready made in the process of fermentation . When I removed from that house I was under the necessity of making the fixed air for myself; and one experiment leading to another, as I have distin”
Letter to Dr. Richard Price (Oct. 19, 1771) as quoted in John Towill Rutt , Life and Correspondence of Joseph Priestley (1831) -
“Our anxiety during the King of France 's escape , and our joy on his capture, cannot be described. I hope the new constitution is now effectually established, and that all attempts to overturn it will be in vain. The high-party here are mortified in the extreme. They would have had France involved in a most ruinous civil war, for the imaginary rights of one man. A majority, I fear, of Englishmen a”
Letter to Theophilus Lindsey (29 June 1791), quoted in John Towill Rutt, Life and Correspondence of Joseph Priestley, LL.D., F.R.S., &c. Vol. II (1832), p. 114
Joseph Priestley on Politics
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“If the power of government be very extensive, and the subjects of it have, consequently, little power over their own actions, that government is tyrannical, and oppressive; whether, with respect to its form, it be a monarchy, an aristocracy, or even a republic.”
Essay on the First Principles of Government, 2nd Edition (1771) | Section III, "Of Civil Liberty"
Joseph Priestley on Truth
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Attributed to Joseph Priestley:
“The discovery of truth is the great business of the philosopher.”
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“It is hardly possible not to suspect the truth of this doctrine of atonement, when we consider that the general maxims to which it may be reduced, are nowhere laid down, or asserted, in the Scriptures, but others quite contrary to them.”
An History of the Corruptions of Christianity(1782) | Part II : Opinions Relating to the Doctrine of Atonement, § I : That Christ did not die to make satisfaction for the sins of men.