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The Understanding can never be convinc'd, nor properly submit, but by such Arguments, as are rational, perswasive, and sutable to its own Nature;
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“The Understanding can never be convinc'd, nor properly submit, but by such Arguments, as are rational, perswasive, and sutable to its own Nature;”

William Penn

Source
The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience Once More Briefly Debated & Defended
Date
1670
Local voice
Authorial / signed preface voice · William Penn
Meaning

Meaning of “The Understanding can never be convinc'd, nor properly…”

Penn argues that belief cannot genuinely be produced by external force; conviction must address the mind through reasons capable of answering its doubts and objections.

Source context

Where does it come from?

The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience (1670), represented by the CELT / University College Cork transcription. Original-period spelling is retained. Penn is making a seventeenth-century Quaker argument against coercion in religion; the record is historical political-religious thought, not current legal advice.

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Speaker context

Why the local voice matters

The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience. Penn argues against coercion of belief in seventeenth-century religious-liberty polemic; original-period spelling is retained.

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FreedomThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionTolerancePoliticsReasonReligionRights
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Source identified
The toleration of those that differ from others in matters of religion is so agreeable to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to the genuine reason of mankind, that it seems monstrous for men to be so blind as not to perceive the necessity and advantage of it in so clear a light.
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“The toleration of those that differ from others in matters of religion is so agreeable to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to the genuine reason of mankind, that it seems monstrous for men to be so blind as not to perceive the necessity and advantage of it in so clear a light.”

John Locke · A Letter Concerning Toleration · 1689
Meaning & context

Locke argues that religious difference should not by itself justify coercion or persecution, grounding toleration both in his reading of Christianity and in a broader appeal to human reason.

Source details

A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), public-domain text also preserved in The Works of John Locke. Locke immediately distinguishes civil government from religion and argues that persecution should not be disguised as care for souls. His historical position had limits, so this page does not present the letter as a complete modern theory of equal religious freedom.

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The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man;
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“The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man;”

James Madison · Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, 20 June 1785 · 1785
Meaning & context

Madison argues that religious belief and practice should follow individual conviction rather than civil compulsion.

Source details

Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, represented by Founders Online / National Archives. Madison wrote against a proposed Virginia assessment supporting teachers of Christianity. The sentence is historical religious-liberty argument, not current legal advice.

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It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.
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“It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.”

George Washington · George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, August 18, 1790 · 1790
Meaning & context

Washington rejects the idea that religious liberty is a favor granted by a dominant group: the stronger claim is that conscience belongs to citizens as an inherent right rather than by another group’s permission.

Source details

Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, August 18, 1790, Founders Online. Washington follows this by saying the United States government gives “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” The record is historical civic-religious argument, not evidence that the period had already achieved equal liberty in practice.

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If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
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“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

John Stuart Mill · On Liberty · 1859
Meaning & context

Mill makes the number of people holding an opinion irrelevant to their right to silence dissent: minority speech remains worth protecting even when nearly everyone else believes it wrong.

Source details

On Liberty, Chapter II, Project Gutenberg #34901. Mill’s next argument is epistemic as well as political: suppressing an opinion can deprive everyone of truth or of the clearer understanding created when truth is tested against error.

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My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
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“My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”

Thomas Paine · Rights of Man · 1792
Meaning & context

Paine places moral allegiance beyond national or sectarian identity, presenting humanity at large and practical good-doing as more fundamental than loyalty to a particular place or religious label.

Source details

Rights of Man, Part II, Project Gutenberg public-domain collection #3742. The line appears in Paine’s statement of independence from place or person while criticizing hereditary political privilege. The exact text is “my country is the world, and my religion is to do good,” not the later expanded attribution “all mankind are my brethren.”

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If all Men are born Free, how is it that all Women are born Slaves?
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“If all Men are born Free, how is it that all Women are born Slaves?”

Mary Astell · Some Reflections Upon Marriage · 1706
Meaning & context

Astell turns the language of natural freedom back on a social order that treats women as naturally subordinate, exposing a contradiction between political liberty and domestic domination.

Source details

Some Reflections Upon Marriage, Appendix in the fourth-edition text represented by Project Gutenberg #61143. The edition states that the preceding edition’s extended Preface was moved to the end as an Appendix; there Astell asks, “If all Men are born Free, how is it that all Women are born Slaves?” while challenging claims of natural male supremacy. It is early-modern feminist political-religious polemic, not a literal equation of every form of historical slavery.