“If life, liberty, and property could be enjoyed in as great perfection in solitude as in society, there would be no need of government.”

Argument Against the Writs of Assistance (1761)

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James Otis Jr. 13
Lawyer in colonial Massachusetts 1725–1783

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“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”

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