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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

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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
Mean
Defending
Great
Tyrants
Leave
Rights
War
Means
Waging
Doe
Objection
Government
Objections

More quotes by Patrick Henry

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[Our Constitution] is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.
Patrick Henry
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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.
Patrick Henry
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The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
Patrick Henry
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Righteousness alone can exalt them [America] as a nation. Reader! Whoever thou art, remember this, and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself and encourage it in others.
Patrick Henry
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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?
Patrick Henry
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It is the business of a virtuous clergyman to censure vice in every appearance of it.
Patrick Henry
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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.
Patrick Henry
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Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom.
Patrick Henry
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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
Patrick Henry
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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.
Patrick Henry
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We have not yet begun to fight.
Patrick Henry
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I am not a Virginian, I am an American.
Patrick Henry
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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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What right do they have to say we the people rather than we the States?
Patrick Henry
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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.
Patrick Henry
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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.
Patrick Henry
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The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed.
Patrick Henry
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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.
Patrick Henry
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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?
Patrick Henry
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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.
Patrick Henry