Quotations from Patrick Henry
Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?
Fear is the passion of slaves.
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it.
Give me liberty or give me death.
Guard
with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who
approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but
downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably
ruined.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.
I
have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing
more I wish I could give them, and that is the Christian religion.
I know no way of judging the future but by the past.
I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death.
I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.
I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
If this be treason, make the most of it!
Is
life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of
chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course
others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship.
The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed.
The great object is that every man be armed.
The
liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the
transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.
This is
all the inheritance I give to my dear family. The religion of Christ
will give them one which will make them rich indeed.
We are not
weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of Nature has
placed in our power... the battle, sir, is not to the strong alone it
is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.