Quotes by James Otis

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

“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...””

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

“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.””

“Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson "doubted his authority to order the soldiers to fire upon the populace." [A] These boys had shown several times in the vicinity of this same so-called Liberty Hall of what acts they were capable, and there was not one of them but that looked forward to the time when it should be possible to do something more than simply vent his displeasure in words. They had been among the throng who, in open defiance of the law, had made prisoner of Giles Hendricks; tarred and feathered, and then carried him in a cart through the principal streets of the city to the Liberty””