Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.
PATRICK HENRYIt is the business of a virtuous clergy to censure vice in every appearance of it.
More Patrick Henry Quotes
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Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.
PATRICK HENRY -
Give me liberty or give me death.
PATRICK HENRY -
The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I Am Not A Virginian, But An American!
PATRICK HENRY -
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.
PATRICK HENRY -
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.
PATRICK HENRY -
Fear is the passion of slaves.
PATRICK HENRY -
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.
PATRICK HENRY -
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 -
Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom.
PATRICK HENRY -
Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense?
PATRICK HENRY -
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. If they had that and I had not given them one shilling they would have been rich; and if they had not that and I had given them all the world, they would be poor.
PATRICK HENRY -
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!
PATRICK HENRY -
This is all the inheritance I give to my dear family. The religion of Christ will give them one which will make them rich indeed.
PATRICK HENRY -
When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.
PATRICK HENRY -
The great object is that every man be armed.
PATRICK HENRY