The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.
Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists: The Report of the Committee of Correspondence to the Boston Town Meeting, Nov. 20, 1772.
A metafísica é uma consequência de estar mal disposto.
Metaphysics is a consequence of not feeling very well.
Fernando Pessoa, Tabacaria (1928), trans. Richard Zenith.
There is a Passion natural to the Mind of man, especially a free Man, which renders him impatient of Restraint.
George Mason, Letter to the Committee of Merchants in London (June 6, 1766).
Mr. Chairman — A worthy member has asked, who are the militia, if they be not the people, of this country, and if we are not to be protected from the fate of the Germans, Prussians, &c. by our representation? I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.
George Mason, June 16, 1788, speech to the Virginia convention held to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.
Samuel Adams, in Essay published in The Advertiser (1748) and later reprinted in The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams (1865)
ὅπου γὰρ ἰσχὺς συζυγοῦσι καὶ δίκη
ποία ξυνωρὶς τῆσδε καρτερωτέρα
For where might and justice are yoke-fellows —
Aeschylus, Fragments of Uncertain Plays (#209), the Herbert Weir Smith translation (Loeb Library, Aeschylus II).
What pair is stronger than this?