James Otis Quotes

While 18th century Americans objected to taxation without representation, they also objected equally to taxation with representation.

A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny. It condemns the citizen to servitude.

In the laws of the land, she has no rights; in government she has no voice. And in spite of another principle recognized in this Republic, namely, that 'taxation without representation is tyranny,' she is taxed without being represented.

What we should have fought for was representation without taxation.

Did you ever get to wondering if taxation without representation might have been cheaper?

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.

The world will not accept dictatorship or domination.

Till people find themselves greatly abused and oppressed by their governors, they are not apt to complain; and whenever they do, in fact, find themselves thus abused and oppressed, they must be stupid not to complain.

Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

No taxation without respiration.

The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it.

Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive, that they must be thrown off even at the risk of reigns of terror.

The major conflicts of our day are autocrats verses the village square.

Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is the history of resistance.

I went to Boston fully expecting to be arrested - arrested by a polizia created by a government that my ancestors rebelled to establish.

Millions of people have to restore liberty and have to understand the danger and personal risk they face in a police state.

While the Governor, and the Mayor, and countless officers of the Commonwealth are at large, the champions of liberty are imprisoned.

It is true that liberty is not free, nor is it easy. But tyranny - even varying degrees of it - is much more difficult, and much more expensive. The time has come to rein in the federal government, put it on a crash diet, and let the people keep their money and their liberty.

Now many such things may be done without intitling the people to rise in arms. A gross, flagrant, and palpable abuse no doubt will do it, as if they should be required to pay a tax equal to half or third of their substance.

The American colonies, all know, were greatly opposed to taxation without representation. They were also, a less celebrated quality, equally opposed to taxation with representation.

In 1790, the nation which had fought a revolution against taxation without representation discovered that some of its citizens weren't much happier about taxation with representation.

The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of oppression, if they are strong enough, whether by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable.

Yes, citizens, Iturbide was a traitor, a hypocrite and an impious man who destroyed the assembly in which the people had deposited their sovereignty in order to appropriate it all to himself

History dictates that unresponsive governments force ordinary people to do extraordinary things.