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Quote#Politics & Power

If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or…

Quote bySamuel Adams · 1722–1803

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Rights of the Colonists (1772).

English (original)

If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.

— Samuel Adams

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