Patrick Henry Quotes: 20 Patrick Henry Famous Quotes
Patrick Henry Quotes: Patrick Henry (29 May 1736 – 6 June 1799) was an American attorney, planter and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia in the 1770s. A U.S.
Below are 20 Patrick Henry Famous Quotes:
Patrick Henry Quotes
1. 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.
― Patrick Henry
2. I am not a Virginian, but an American.
― Patrick Henry
3. He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt.
― Patrick Henry
4. 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
5. The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.
― Patrick Henry
6. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun!
― Patrick Henry
7. 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. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and the provide for it.
― Patrick Henry
8. 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. . . . Did you ever read of any revolution in a nation . . . inflicted by those who had no power at all?
― Patrick Henry
9. It is the business of a virtuous clergy to censure vice in every appearance of it.
― Patrick Henry
10. United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.
― Patrick Henry
11. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.
― Patrick Henry
12. Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship.
― Patrick Henry
13. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.
― Patrick Henry
14. Give me liberty or give me death.
― Patrick Henry
15. Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is impossible that a nation of infidels or idolaters should be a nation of freemen. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.
― Patrick Henry
16. I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.
― Patrick Henry
17. The great object is that every man be armed.
Everyone who is able may have a gun.
― Patrick Henry
18. I smell a rat.
― Patrick Henry
19. ...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
20. I have the highest veneration of those Gentleman, -- but, Sir, give me leave to demand, what right had they to say, We, the People? My political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious solicitude for the public welfare, leads me to ask who authorized them to speak the language of, We, the People, instead of We, the States? States are the characteristics, and the soul of the confederation. If the States be not the agents of this compact, it must be one of great consolidated National Government of the people of all the States.
― Patrick Henry
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