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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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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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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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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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I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.
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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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Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom.
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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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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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The eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate, it is immutable.
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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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It is the business of a virtuous clergyman to censure vice in every appearance of it.
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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 King has degenerated into a tyrant and forfeits all rights to his subjects' obedience.
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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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The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed.
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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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We have not yet begun to fight.
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I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.
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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 when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains.
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