Algernon Sidney

Algernon Sidney was an English republican politician and political theorist whose Discourses Concerning Government argued against absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings. Written in reply to Robert Filmer, the manuscript was used as evidence to convict Sidney of treason, and he was executed in 1683; the work was published posthumously in 1698 and later influenced the American revolutionaries. It is in that book that the exact wording “God helps those who help themselves” first appears in English.