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Quotation from The Virginia Declaration of Rights by George Mason
“That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”
The Virginia Declaration of Rights, Section I (Avalon Project transcription)
The opening principle as amended by the convention, which changed Mason's born equally free and added the clause about entering a state of society.
Citation: "That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." — George Mason, The Virginia Declaration of Rights, Section I (Avalon Project transcription). (id virginia-declaration-of-rights-q1)
Portrait: George Mason, After John Hesselius, Public domain.
