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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
Freedom
Incompatible
President
Corrupted
Cannot
Morals
States
Conscience
Make
Citizens
Good
Public
Men
Moral
State

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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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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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Give me liberty or give me death.
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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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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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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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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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This house protected by an armed citizen. There is absolutely nothing here worth dying for.
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It is the business of a virtuous clergyman to censure vice in every appearance of it.
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Jealousy is the only vice that gives no pleasure
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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?
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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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I am not a Virginian, I am an American.
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What right do they have to say we the people rather than we the States?
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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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I shall act as I think my duty requires.
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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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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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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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. . . 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