Joseph Priestley Quotes on Freedom
Joseph Priestley was an English natural philosopher, theologian, and political theorist, and one of the founding figures of English Unitarianism. This page collects quotes attributed to Joseph Priestley on the topic of freedom, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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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)