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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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Patrick Henry
Age: 63 †
Born: 1736
Born: May 29
Died: 1799
Died: June 6
Governor Of Virginia
Lawyer
Politician
Slaveholder
Hanover County
Virginia
Henry
Good
Public
Men
Moral
State
Freedom
Incompatible
President
Corrupted
Cannot
Morals
States
Conscience
Make
Citizens

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Jealousy is the only vice that gives no pleasure
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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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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.
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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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I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.
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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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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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[Our Constitution] is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.
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What right do they have to say we the people rather than we the States?
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Being a Christian... is a character which I prize far above all this world has or can boast.
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I shall act as I think my duty requires.
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The eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate, it is immutable.
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We have not yet begun to fight.
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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.
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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.
Patrick Henry
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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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. . . 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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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.
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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....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