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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
Instrument
Libertarian
Instruments
Constitution
Government
People
Restraining
Restrain

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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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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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Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! – but there is no peace.
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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 shall act as I think my duty requires.
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The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.
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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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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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. . . 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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I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.
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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?
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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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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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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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The King has degenerated into a tyrant and forfeits all rights to his subjects' obedience.
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Give me liberty or give me death.
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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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This house protected by an armed citizen. There is absolutely nothing here worth dying for.
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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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I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death.
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