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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
Restraining
Restrain
Instrument
Libertarian
Instruments
Constitution
Government
People

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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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The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed.
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I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.
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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 great object is that every man be armed.
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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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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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Give me liberty or give me death.
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It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains.
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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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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 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?
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Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom.
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It is the business of a virtuous clergyman to censure vice in every appearance of it.
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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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I shall act as I think my duty requires.
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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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....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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Fear is the passion of slaves.
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