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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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Patrick Henry
Age: 63 †
Born: 1736
Born: May 29
Died: 1799
Died: June 6
Governor Of Virginia
Lawyer
Politician
Slaveholder
Hanover County
Virginia
Henry
Indeed
Wherewith
Arms
Assemble
Fine
Framers
Gone
Punish
Times
Amendments
People
Tyrants
Defend
Sufficient

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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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The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed.
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The great object is that every man be armed.
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Give me liberty or give me death.
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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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. . . 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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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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The King has degenerated into a tyrant and forfeits all rights to his subjects' obedience.
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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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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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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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It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains.
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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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I shall act as I think my duty requires.
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Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
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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 liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.
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[Our Constitution] is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.
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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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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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