George Mason Quotes

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

  George Mason

  Wisdom, Men, People

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

  George Mason

  Strength, Peace, Gun

  George Mason's address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1788.

  109 Copy quote

• That no free government, nor the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles; and by the recognition by all citizens that they have duties as well as rights, and that such rights cannot be enjoyed save in a society where law is respected and due process is observed.

  George Mason

  Blessing, Rights, Government

  13 Copy quote

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

  George Mason

  Gun, People, Second Amendment

  89 Copy quote

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

  George Mason

  World, Civil Rights, This World

  George Mason's remarks on Annual Elections for the Fairfax Independent Company, circa April 1775.

  42 Copy quote

• The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth.

  George Mason

  Patriotic, Law, Earth

  24 Copy quote

• 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.

  George Mason

  Background Noise, Waiting, Make You Happy

  30 Copy quote

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

  George Mason

  Government, Liberty, Freedom Of The Press

  Virginia Bill of Rights article 12 (1776)

  96 Copy quote

• The Laws of Nature are the Laws of God, Whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth. A legislature must not obstruct our obedience to Him from whose punishment they cannot protect us. All human constitutions which contradict His laws, we are in conscience bound to disobey.

  George Mason

  Law, Punishment, Earth

  5 Copy quote

• Government is, or ought to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community... when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.

  George Mason

  Government, People, Community

  Virginia Declaration of Rights (Article 3), June 12, 1776.

  11 Copy quote

• When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British parliament was advised by an artful man [Sir William Keith], who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people. That it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them. But that they should not do it openly; but to weaken them and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.

  George Mason

  Men, Gun, America

  George Mason's address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1788.

  58 Copy quote

• A well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

  George Mason

  Army, Gun, People

  29 Copy quote

• All men are created equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing the obtaining of happiness and safety.

  George Mason

  Mean, Independent, Equality

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  George Mason

  Political, Voting, Gentleman

  26 Copy quote

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

  George Mason

  Men, Justice, Should

  23 Copy quote

• 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.

  George Mason

  People, Revolution, Should

  6 Copy quote

• 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.

  George Mason

  Law, Rights, People

  "The Federal and State Constitutions Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America" compiled and edited by Newton Thorpe, Washington, DC : Government Printing Office, 1909.

  7 Copy quote

• Nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of his constituents, as the certainty of returning to the general mass of the people, from whence he was taken, where he must participate in their burdens.

  George Mason

  Taken, Men, People

  24 Copy quote

• I charge [my sons] never to let the motives of private interest or ambition to influence them to betray, nor the terrors of poverty and disgrace, or the fear of danger or of death deter them from asserting the liberty of their country, and endeavoring to transmit to their posterity those sacred rights to which themselves were born

  George Mason

  Country, Ambition, Son

  4 Copy quote

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

  George Mason

  Slavery, States, Mankind

  George Mason's address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 17, 1788.

  9 Copy quote

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

  George Mason

  Rights, Government, People

  "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution", vol. 3, edited by Jonathan Elliot, 1974.

  17 Copy quote

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

  George Mason

  Prosperity, Virtue, Depends

  Letter to William Cabell, May 6, 1783.

  19 Copy quote

• We will not submit to have our own money taken out of our pockets without our consent; because if any man or any set of men take from us without our consent or that of our representatives one shilling in the pound we have not security for the remaining nineteen. We owe to our mother country the duty of subjects but will not pay her the submission of slaves.

  George Mason

  Mother, Country, Taken

  4 Copy quote

• Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven on a Country. As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes & effects providence punishes national sins, by national calamities.

  George Mason

  Country, Tyrants, Heaven

  "The Journal of the Debates in the Convention which Framed the Constitution of the United States, May-September, 1787", Volume 2, as recorded by James Madison, 1908.

  57 Copy quote

• 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.

  George Mason

  Competition, Liberty, Littles

  Letter to George Washington, April 5, 1769.

  5 Copy quote

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