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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
May
Rulers
Ever
Secure
Never
Information
Concealment
People
Liberty
Transactions
Politics
Transparency
Freedom
Liberties
Political
Secrecy
Government
Concealed

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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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Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! – but there is no peace.
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I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death.
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I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.
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Away with your president! We shall have a king... the army will salute him as monarch your militia will leave you and assist in making him king and fight against you. And what have you to oppose this force? What will then become of you and your rights?
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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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The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed.
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I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil. Everything we do is to improve it, if it happens in our day if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of slavery.
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Give me liberty or give me death.
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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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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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When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.
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Have we the means of resisting disciplined armies, when our only defence, the militia, is put in the hands of Congress?
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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.
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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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It is the business of a virtuous clergyman to censure vice in every appearance of it.
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The whole economy of this lower world proves that it is by labor and perseverance only that good is obtained and evil is avoided.
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He that hath a blind conscience which sees nothing, a dead conscience which feels nothing, and a dumb conscience which says nothing, is in as miserable a condition as a man can be on this side of hell.
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The King has degenerated into a tyrant and forfeits all rights to his subjects' obedience.
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Were my soul trembling on the wing of eternity, were this hand freezing to death, were my voice choking with the last struggle, I would still, with the last gasp of that voice, implore you to remember the truth: God has given America to be free.
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