It is a clear truth that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.
Interpretation
Sacrificing others' freedom undermines your own autonomy.
James Otis suggests that individuals who willingly trade away the freedom of others may eventually become indifferent to their own liberation. This reflects a deeper philosophical idea that the respect for personal liberty should be universal, as violating the rights of others can lead to a collective deterioration of freedom.
In practice
In a speech about civil rights, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of protecting freedoms for all.
I am forced to get my living by the labour of my hand; and the sweat of my brow... for bitter bread, earned under the frowns of some who have no natural or divine right to be above me, and entirely owe their grandeur and honor to grinding the faces of the poor.
There can be no prescription old enough to supersede the Law of Nature and the grant of God Almighty, who has given to all men a natural right to be free, and they have it ordinarily in their power to make themselves so, if they please.
I will to my dying day oppose with all the powers and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand, and villainy on the other, as this writ of assistance is.
If we are not represented, we are slaves.
Now, one of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house.
An act against the Constitution is void; an act against natural equity is void.
Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.
Let no man write my epitaph... When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then shall my character be vindicated, then may my epitaph be written.
But there comes a moment in everybody's life when he must decide whether he'll live among the human beings or not - a fool among fools or a fool alone.
Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.
Peace is the work of justice indirectly, in so far as justice removes the obstacles to peace; but it is the work of charity (love) directly, since charity, according to its very notion, causes peace.
Why should workers agree to be slaves in a basically authoritarian structure? They should have control over it themselves. Why shouldn't communities have a dominant voice in running the institutions that affect their lives?
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