Colonial Sense: Society-Lifestyle: Colonial Quotes

A few years' experience will convince us that those things which at the time they happened we regarded as our greatest misfortunes have proved our greatest blessings.	— George Mason
All men are by nature born equally free and independent.	— George Mason
As much as I value a 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. — on slavery	— George Mason
As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this.	— George Mason
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
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
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
I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials.	— George Mason
I begin to grow heartily tired of the etiquette and nonsense so fashionable in this city.	— George Mason
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
I wish I knew where to get a good one myself; for I find cold Sheets extreamly disagreeable.	— George Mason
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
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. — speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1778	— George Mason
Slavery discourages arts and manufactures.	— George Mason
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
The augmentation of slaves weakens the states; and such a trade is diabolical in itself, and disgraceful to mankind.	— George Mason
The poor despise labor when performed by slaves.	— George Mason
There is a Passion natural to the Mind of man, especially a free Man, which renders him impatient of Restraint.	— George Mason
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. — speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1778	— George Mason
We came equals into this world, and equals shall we go out of it.	— George Mason
Your dear baby has died innocent and blameless, and has been called away by an all wise and merciful Creator, most probably from a life to misery and misfortune, and most certainly to one of happiness and bliss.	— George Mason
[W]hen the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, — 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 weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia. — speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1778	— George Mason