Top 40 George Mason Quotes (2024 Update)

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 “The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth.”

— George Mason

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

— George Mason

Featured in: Quotes on Liberty

3. “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

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

— George Mason

5. “No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue.”

— George Mason

6. “The Laws of Nature are the Laws of God, Whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth.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

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

— George Mason

8. “We came equals into this world, and equals shall we go out of it.”

— George Mason

9. “As much as I value an union of all the states, I would not admit the southern states into the union, unless they agreed to the discontinuance of this disgraceful trade, because it would bring weakness and not strength to the union.”

— George Mason

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

— George Mason

11. “All men are by nature born equally free and independent.”

— George Mason

12. “All men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that no particular sect or society of Christians ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others.”

— George Mason

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

— George Mason

14. “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

15. “I give and bequeath my soul to Almighty God that gave it me, hoping that through the meritorious death and passion of our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ to receive absolution and remission for all my sins.”

— George Mason

16. “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

17. “Every selfish motive therefore, every family attachment, ought to recommend such a system of policy as would provide no less carefully for the rights and happiness of the lowest than of the highest orders of Citizens.”

— George Mason

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

— George Mason

19. “That the people have a Right to mass and to bear arms; that 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, are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided...”

— George Mason

20. “As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this.”

— George Mason

21. “Attend with Diligence and strict Integrity to the Interest of your Correspondents and enter into no Engagements which you have not the almost certain Means of performing.”

— George Mason

22. “There is a Passion natural to the Mind of man, especially a free Man, which renders him impatient of Restraint.”

— George Mason

23. “That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred.”

— George Mason

24. “That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary.”

— George Mason

25. “Slavery discourages arts and manufactures.”

— George Mason

26. “In all our associations; in all our agreements let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim – that all power was originally lodged in, and consequently is derived from, the people.”

— George Mason

27. “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

28. “I begin to grow heartily tired of the etiquette and nonsense so fashionable in this city.”

— George Mason

29. “I thank God, I have been able, by adopting Principles of strict Economy and Frugality, to keep my principal, I mean my Country-Estate, unimpaired.”

— George Mason

Featured in: Country Quotes

30. “The poor despise labor when performed by slaves.”

— George Mason

31. “I have been for some time in Retirement, and shall not probably return again to public Life; yet my Anxiety for my Country, in these Times of Danger, makes me sometimes dabble a little in Politicks, and keep up a Correspondence with some Men upon the public Stage.”

— George Mason

Featured in: Country Quotes

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

— George Mason

33. “We owe to our Mother-Country the Duty of Subjects but will not pay her the Submission of Slaves.”

— George Mason

Featured in: Country Quotes

34. “I am now pretty far advanced in life, and all my views are center’d in the Happiness and well-fare of my children; you will therefore find from me every Indulgence which you have a right to expect from an affectionate Parent.”

— George Mason

35. “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

36. “Every society, all government, and every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general good and safety of the community.”

— George Mason

37. “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

38. “One of the first principles of decorative art is that in all manufactures ornament must hold a place subordinate to that of utility; and when, by its exuberance, ornament interferes with utility, it is misplaced and vulgar.”

— George Mason

39. “Is it to be expected that the Southern States will deliver themselves bound hand and foot to the Eastern States? A few rich merchants in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York could thereby monopolise the staples of the Southern States and reduce their value.”

— George Mason

40. “Habituated from our Infancy to trample upon the Rights of Human Nature, every generous, every liberal Sentiment, if not extinguished, is enfeebled in our Minds.”

— George Mason

41. “That the people have a right to uniform government; and, therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.”

— George Mason

42. “If I can only live to see the American union firmly fixed, and free governments well established in our western world, and can leave to my children but a crust of bread and liberty, I shall die satisfied.”

— George Mason

43. “Taught to regard a part of our own Species in the most abject and contemptible Degree below us, we lose that Idea of the dignity of Man which the Hand of Nature had implanted in us, for great and useful purposes.”

— George Mason

44. “I determined to spend the Remainder of my Days in privacy and Retirement with my Children, from whose Society alone I cou’d expect Comfort.”

— George Mason

45. “I wish I knew where to get a good one myself; for I find cold Sheets extreamly disagreeable.”

— George Mason

46. “I quitted my Seat in the House of Delegates, from a Conviction that I was no longer able to do any essential Service.”

— George Mason

47. “I retired from public Business from a thorough Conviction that it was not in my Power to do any Good, and very much disgusted with Measures, which appeared to me inconsistent with common Policy and Justice.”

— George Mason