James Otis Quotes

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• 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.

  James Otis

  Country, Sacrifice, Men

  52 Copy quote

• Taxation without representation is tyranny.

  James Otis

  Tyrants, Taxation Without Representation, Tyranny

  Attributed in John Adams, Letter toWilliam Tudor, 29 Mar. 1818. This maxim, which is often quoted as the rallying cry for the American Revolution, has been attributed to Otis's argument against the writs of assistance before the Superior Court of Massachusetts in February 1761. However, there is no contemporary record of Otis using these words. John Adams, in describing the event fifty-seven years later, referred in his letter to Tudor to "Mr Otis's maxim, that 'taxation without representation w

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

  James Otis

  Freedom, Taken, Liberty

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• 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.

  James Otis

  Men, Law, White

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• 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.

  James Otis

  Freedom, Men, Law

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• 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.

  James Otis

  Men, Law, House

  Argument against the writs of assistance, Boston, Mass., Feb. 1761. Burton Stevenson, Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Familiar Phrases (1948), traces the proverb "A man's house is his castle" back to 1567 and notes legal usages of it by Sir Edward Coke in the seventeenth century. See Coke 1; Coke 8; William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 2

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

  James Otis

  Men, Consent, Persons

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• 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.

  James Otis

  Spring, Government, Foundation

  11 Copy quote

• [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.

  James Otis

  Men, Law, Tyrants

  "Argument Against the Writs of Assistance". "Argument Against the Writs of Assistance" by James Otis Jr., 1761.

  18 Copy quote

• The people's safety is the law of God.

  James Otis

  Law, People, Safety

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

  James Otis

  Men, House, Liberty

  Argument against the writs of assistance, Boston, Mass., Feb. 1761. Burton Stevenson, Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Familiar Phrases (1948), traces the proverb "A man's house is his castle" back to 1567 and notes legal usages of it by Sir Edward Coke in the seventeenth century. See Coke 1; Coke 8; William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 2

  9 Copy quote

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

  James Otis

  Determined, I Am Determined, Consequence

  "Niles' Weekly Register, Volume 14". p. 138., en.wikiquote.org. 1818.

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

  James Otis

  Void, Constitution, Natural

  Argument against the writs of assistance, Boston, Mass., Feb. 1761

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• 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.

  James Otis

  Hands, Sweat, Divine Right

  13 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Otis

  Men, Tyrants, Soul

  "James Otis: Against Writs of Assistance". James Otis' speech (February 1761), as quoted in William Tudor "James Otis's Speech on the Writs of Assistance", books.google.com. 1906.

  17 Copy quote

• A man is accountable to no person for his doings.

  James Otis

  Men, Writs Of Assistance, Doings

  "James Otis's speech on the Writs of assistance" edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, Edward Channing, William Tudor, Hart, Albert Bushnell,.

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Otis

  Rights, Law, America

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Otis

  Hands, Dying, Slavery

  "James Otis: Against Writs of Assistance". James Otis' speech (February 1761), as quoted in William Tudor "James Otis's Speech on the Writs of Assistance", books.google.com. 1906.

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• 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 law, that ever was found in an English law book.

  James Otis

  Book, Opportunity, Hands

  "James Otis: Against Writs of Assistance". James Otis' speech (February 1761), as quoted in William Tudor "James Otis's Speech on the Writs of Assistance", books.google.com. 1906.

  9 Copy quote

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

  James Otis

  Tyrants, May, Murder

  "James Otis: Against Writs of Assistance". James Otis' speech (February 1761), as quoted in William Tudor "James Otis's Speech on the Writs of Assistance", books.google.com. 1906.

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• 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.

  James Otis

  Sister, Lightning, Dear God

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• 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.

  James Otis

  Legislature, Parliament, Congress

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• 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.

  James Otis

  Thinking, Names, Soul

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

  James Otis

  Practice, Principles, Trials

  "James Otis: Against Writs of Assistance". James Otis' speech (February 1761), as quoted in William Tudor "James Otis's Speech on the Writs of Assistance", books.google.com. 1906.

  6 Copy quote

• A man's house is his castle.

  James Otis

  Home, Men, House

  Argument against the writs of assistance, Boston, Mass., Feb. 1761. Burton Stevenson, Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Familiar Phrases (1948), traces the proverb "A man's house is his castle" back to 1567 and notes legal usages of it by Sir Edward Coke in the seventeenth century. See Coke 1; Coke 8; William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 2

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