Patrick Henry

Shall we, who have laid the proud British lion at our feet, now be afraid of his whelps?

I have had many anxieties for our commonwealth, principally occasioned by the depreciation of our money.

Give me liberty or give me death.

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.

Would any one believe that I am master of slaves by my own purchase? I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them.

The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian but an American.

Fear is the passion of slaves.

If this be treason, make the most of it!

Unite liberality with a just frugality; always reserve something for the hand of charity; and never let your door be closed to the voice of suffering humanity.

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

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

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 inevitably ruined.

The great object is that every man be armed.

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.

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

It is a debt we owe to the purity of our religion to show that it is at variance with that law which warrants slavery.

When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.

We are descended from a people whose government was founded on liberty; our glorious forefathers of Great Britain made liberty the foundation of everything. That country is become a great, mighty, and splendid nation; not because their government is strong and energetic, but, sir, because liberty is its direct end and foundation.

Do you remember any instance where tyranny was destroyed and freedom established on its ruins, among a people possessing so small a share of virtue and public spirit? I recollect none, and this more than the British arms makes me fearful of final success, without a reform.

Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship.