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

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The great object is that every man be armed.
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There is a Book worth all other books which were ever printed.
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What right do they have to say we the people rather than we the States?
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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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I am not a Virginian, I am an American.
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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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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.
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It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains.
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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.
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Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! – but there is no peace.
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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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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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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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It is the business of a virtuous clergyman to censure vice in every appearance of it.
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I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death.
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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?
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We have not yet begun to fight.
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Jealousy is the only vice that gives no pleasure
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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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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