George Mason Quotes

To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.

The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.

I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials.

We came equals into this world, and equals shall we go out of it.

Considering the natural lust for power so inherent in man, I fear the thirst of power will prevail to oppress the people.

Don't wait around for your life to happen to you. Find something that makes you happy, and do it. Because everything else is all just background noise.

Those gentlemen, who will be elected senators, will fix themselves in the federal town, and become citizens of that town more than of your state.

No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue.

That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred.

No point is of more importance than that the right of impeachment should be continued. Shall any man be above Justice?

In all our associations; in all our agreements let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim - that all power was originally lodged in, and consequently is derived from, the people.

The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth.

Slavery discourages arts and manufacturing ...[and] every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant.

As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this.

Happiness and Prosperity are now within our Reach; but to attain and preserve them must depend upon our own Wisdom and Virtue.

There is a Passion natural to the Mind of man, especially a free Man, which renders him impatient of Restraint.

The question then will be, whether a consolidated government can preserve the freedom and secure the rights of the people.

All power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; [...] magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them.

All men are by nature born equally free and independent.

I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people.

Attend with Diligence and strict Integrity to the Interest of your Correspondents and enter into no Engagements which you have not the almost certain Means of performing.

Slavery discourages arts and manufactures.

Habituated from our Infancy to trample upon the Rights of Human Nature, every generous, every liberal Sentiment, if not extinguished, is enfeebled in our Minds.

A few years' experience will convince us that those things which at the time they happened we regarded as our greatest misfortunes have proved our greatest blessings.

Every society, all government, and every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general good and safety of the community.

The augmentation of slaves weakens the states; and such a trade is diabolical in itself, and disgraceful to mankind.

I wish I knew where to get a good one myself; for I find cold Sheets extreamly disagreeable.

I begin to grow heartily tired of the etiquette and nonsense so fashionable in this city.

The poor despise labor when performed by slaves.

Who are the militia, if they be not the people, of this country...? I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.

All power is lodged in, and consequently derived from, the people. We should wear it as a breastplate, and buckle it on as our armour.

That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised.

The [President's] Nomination, of Course, brings the Subject fully under the Consideration of the Senate; who have then a Right to decide upon its Propriety or Impropriety.

That slow poison [slavery] is daily contaminating the minds and morals of our people. Every gentlemen here is born a petty tyrant, practiced in acts of despotism and cruelty.

Our All is at Stake, and the little Conveniencys and Comforts of Life, when set in Competition with our Liberty, ought to be rejected not with Reluctance but with Pleasure.

I thank God, I have been able, by adopting Principles of strict Economy and Frugality, to keep my principal, I mean my Country-Estate, unimpaired.

I determined to spend the Remainder of my Days in privacy and Retirement with my Children, from whose Society alone I cou'd expect Comfort.

I quitted my Seat in the House of Delegates, from a Conviction that I was no longer able to do any essential Service.

We owe to our Mother-Country the Duty of Subjects but will not pay her the Submission of Slaves.

The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.