James Otis Quotations

It is a clear truth that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.

I have accordingly considered it, and now appear not only in obedience to your order, but likewise in behalf of the inhabitants of this town, who have presented another petition, and out of regard to the liberties of the subject.

Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed.

A man is accountable to no person for his doings.

These manly sentiments, in private life, make good citizens; in public life, the patriot and the hero.

I do not say that, when brought to the test, I shall be invincible.

Now one of the most essential branches of English liberty, is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle; and while he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ of assistance, if it should be declared legal, would totally annihilate this privilege.

I will to my dying day oppose, with all the powers and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand and villainy on the other as this Writ of Assistance is.

Every man may reign secure in his petty tyranny, and spread terror and desolation around him, until the trump of the Archangel shall excite different emotions in his soul.

The only principles of public conduct that are worthy of a gentleman or a man are to sacrifice estate, ease, health, and applause, and even life, to the sacred calls of his country.

I pray God I may never be brought to the melancholy trial; but, if ever I should, it will then be known how far I can reduce to practice principles which I know to be founded in truth.

If we are not represented, we are slaves.

Every one with this writ may be a tyrant; if this commission be legal, a tyrant in a legal manner, also, may control, imprison, or murder any one within the realm.

But I think I can sincerely declare that I cheerfully submit myself to every odious name for conscience' sake; and from my soul I despise all those whose guilt, malice, or folly has made them my foes.

My dear sister, I hope, when God Almighty in his righteous providence shall take me out of time into eternity, that it will be by a flash of lightning.

MAY it please your Honors: I was desired by one of the court to look into the books, and consider the question now before them concerning Writs of Assistance.

I was solicited to argue this cause as Advocate-General; and, because I would not, I have been charged with desertion from my office.

Your Honors will find in the old books concerning the office of a justice of the peace precedents of general warrants to search suspected houses.

A man's house is his castle; and whilst he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle.

I only served with them 64 days as a mechanic in Italy,

In the third place, a person with this writ, in the daytime, may enter all houses, shops, etc., at will, and command all to assist him.

An act against the Constitution is void; an act against natural equity is void.

Parliaments are in all cases to declare what is good for the whole; but it is not the declaration of parliament that makes it so.

A man's house is his castle.

There can be no prescription old enough to supersede the Law of Nature and the grant of God Almighty, who has given to all men a natural right to be free, and they have it ordinarily in their power to make themselves so, if they please.

The supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property, without his consent in person, or by representation.

What must be the wealth that avarice, aided by power, cannot exhaust!

Dew depends not on Parliament.

The people's safety is the law of God.

Taxation without representation is tyranny.

[The passage of the Sugar Act] set people a thinking, in six months, more than they had done in their whole lives before.

One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle.

No parts of his Majesty's dominions can be taxed without their consent.

And I take this opportunity to declare, that ...I will to my dying day oppose, with all the powers and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand, and villainy on the other, as this writ of assistance is. It appears to me...the worst instrument of arbitrary power, the most destructive of English liberty, and the fundamental principles of the constitution, that ever was found in an English law-book.

Every British Subject born on the continent of America, or in any other of the British dominions, is by the law of God and nature, by the common law, and by act of parliament, (exclusive of all charters from the crown) entitled to all the natural, essential, inherent and inseparable rights of our fellow subjects in Great- Britain.

Government is founded not on force, as was the theory of Hobbes; nor on compact, as was the theory of Locke and of the revolution of 1688; nor on property, as was the assertion of Harrington. It springs from the necessities of our nature, and has an everlasting foundation in the unchangeable will of God.

[Slave] trade ... is the most shocking violation of the law of nature, has a direct tendency to diminish ... liberty, and makes every dealer in it a tyrant, from the director of an African company to the petty chapman [peddler].... It is a clear truth, that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.

The colonists are by the law of nature free-born, as indeed all man are, white or black...It is a clear truth that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.

I am forced to get my living by the labour of my hand; and the sweat of my brow... for bitter bread, earned under the frowns of some who have no natural or divine right to be above me, and entirely owe their grandeur and honor to grinding the faces of the poor...

Can there be any liberty where property is taken away without consent?