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

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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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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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Jealousy is the only vice that gives no pleasure
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We have not yet begun to fight.
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Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! – but there is no peace.
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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 believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.
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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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Give me liberty or give me death.
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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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I am not a Virginian, I am an American.
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This house protected by an armed citizen. There is absolutely nothing here worth dying for.
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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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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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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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There is a Book worth all other books which were ever printed.
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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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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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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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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