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[Our Constitution] is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.

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
People
Restraining
Restrain
Instrument
Libertarian
Instruments
Constitution
Government

More quotes by Patrick Henry

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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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Fear is the passion of slaves.
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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 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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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?
Patrick Henry
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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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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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What right do they have to say we the people rather than we the States?
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The great object is that every man be armed.
Patrick Henry
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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?
Patrick Henry
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It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains.
Patrick Henry
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I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.
Patrick Henry
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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.
Patrick Henry
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I shall act as I think my duty requires.
Patrick Henry
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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!
Patrick Henry
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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?
Patrick Henry
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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.
Patrick Henry
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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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The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed.
Patrick Henry
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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