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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

James Otis
Age: 58 †
Born: 1725
Born: February 5
Died: 1783
Died: May 23
Journalist
Lawyer
Politician
Barnstable
Massachusetts
James Otis Jr.
Hand
Faculties
Given
Oppose
Hands
Assistance
Faculty
Powers
Slavery
Instruments
Villainy
Dying
Writ

More quotes by James Otis

Image
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
Image
Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed.
James Otis
Image
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.
James Otis
Image
[The passage of the Sugar Act] set people a thinking, in six months, more than they had done in their whole lives before.
James Otis
Image
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
Image
Taxation without representation is tyranny.
James Otis
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Can there be any liberty where property is taken away without consent?
James Otis
Image
What must be the wealth that avarice, aided by power, cannot exhaust!
James Otis
Image
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
Image
A man is accountable to no person for his doings.
James Otis
Image
Dew depends not on Parliament.
James Otis
Image
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
Image
A man's house is his castle.
James Otis
Image
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
Image
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
Image
No parts of his Majesty's dominions can be taxed without their consent.
James Otis
Image
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