Quote

When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.

Patrick Henry

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Patrick Henry
Age: 63 †
Born: 1736
Born: May 29
Died: 1799
Died: June 6
Governor Of Virginia
Lawyer
Politician
Slaveholder
Hanover County
Virginia
Henry
American
Language
Primaries
Spirit
Primary
America
Object
Different
Objects
Youth
Liberty

More quotes by Patrick Henry

Image
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
Patrick Henry
Image
They tell us, sir, that we are weak unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house?
Patrick Henry
Image
I shall act as I think my duty requires.
Patrick Henry
Image
I am not a Virginian, I am an American.
Patrick Henry
Image
I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.
Patrick Henry
Image
The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.
Patrick Henry
Image
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?
Patrick Henry
Image
I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.
Patrick Henry
Image
Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! – but there is no peace.
Patrick Henry
Image
My great objection to this government is, that it does not leave us the means of defending our rights, or of waging war against tyrants.
Patrick Henry
Image
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.
Patrick Henry
Image
We should transmit to posterity our abhorrence of slavery.
Patrick Henry
Image
It is the business of a virtuous clergyman to censure vice in every appearance of it.
Patrick Henry
Image
[Our Constitution] is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.
Patrick Henry
Image
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.
Patrick Henry
Image
The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed.
Patrick Henry
Image
This house protected by an armed citizen. There is absolutely nothing here worth dying for.
Patrick Henry
Image
Suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds. Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.
Patrick Henry
Image
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.
Patrick Henry
Image
What right do they have to say we the people rather than we the States?
Patrick Henry