James Otis Quotes

He who can be, and therefore is, another's, and he who participates in reason enough to apprehend, but not to have, is a slave by nature.

It has always seemed to me that those who are without power, who have to create their own in a makeshifit way, know more about life than those who govern.

Free men have arms; slaves do not.

If you don't want to be a slave, stop acting like a slave.

I'm tired of being considered property.

It is bad to have a servant, but worse to have a master.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.

Liberty is the greatest blessing that men enjoy, and slavery is the heaviest curse that human nature is capable of …. those who are governed at the will of another, and whose property may be taken from them...without their consent...are in the miserable condition of slaves.

Every organism, every human being, must conquer or serve.

Human material seems to have one major defect: it does not like to be considered merely as human material. It finds it hard to endure the feeling that it must resign itself to passive acceptance of changes introduced from above.

Most people say they're slaves, but in my opinion, to say that I am a slave is to take ownership of actually being a slave - to be a tool, be a thing. Basically cattle.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.

Not only was I not born to be a slave; I was not born to hope to become the equal of the slave master.

The oppressed never free themselves - they do not have the necessary strengths.

It is terrible to speak of you, Liberty, for one who lives without you.

I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

Neither can men, by the same principles, be considered as lands, goods, or houses, among possessions. It is necessary that all property should be inferiour to its possessor. But how does the slave differ from his master, but by chance?

Not by the forces of civil war can you govern the very weakest woman. You can kill that woman, but she escapes you then; you cannot govern her. No power on earth can govern a human being, however feeble, who withholds his or her consent.

It's sort of what the Johnny and Devi stories are about, the idea of always being a slave to something.

Rights are in the power of the people.

Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.

People demand freedom only when they have no power.

To depend upon the Will of a Man is Slavery.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.