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The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

Patrick Henry

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Patrick Henry
Age: 63 †
Born: 1736
Born: May 29
Died: 1799
Died: June 6
Governor Of Virginia
Lawyer
Politician
Slaveholder
Hanover County
Virginia
Henry
People
Liberty
Transactions
Politics
Transparency
Freedom
Liberties
Political
Secrecy
Government
Concealed
May
Rulers
Ever
Secure
Never
Information
Concealment

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Jealousy is the only vice that gives no pleasure
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Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty?
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Adversity toughens manhood, and the characteristic of the good or the great man is not that he has been exempt from the evils of life, but that he has surmounted them.
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It is the business of a virtuous clergyman to censure vice in every appearance of it.
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Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom.
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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.
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Human nature will never part with power. Look for an example of a voluntary relinquishment of power from one end of the globe to another - you will find none.
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Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell and George the Third — ['Treason!' cried the Speaker] — may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.
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It is natural to man to indulge in the illusion of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, till she transforms us into beasts.
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I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.
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. . . Virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone that renders us invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed . . . so long as our manners and principles remain sound, there is no danger.
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Give me liberty or give me death.
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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.
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The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
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The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery
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....I am sure that the dangers of this system (the Federal Constitution) are real, when those who have no similar interest with the people of this country (the South) are to legislate for us - when our dearest rights are to be left, in the hands of those, whose advantage it will be to infringe them.
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O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone.
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We should transmit to posterity our abhorrence of slavery.
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Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
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