“The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!”

When the American Spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different; Liberty, sir, was then the primary object.

If this be treason, make the most of it!

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

It is the business of a virtuous clergy to censure vice in every appearance of it.

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.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.

It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.

The great object is that every man be armed.

Will preserve it but downright force. When you give up that force, you are ruined.

Suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds. Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.

Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings – give us that precious jewel and you may take everything else!

Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense?

I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.

The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun.

it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts.

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?