Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 – June 6, 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 Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786. (Click here for full Wikipedia article)
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Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.
Honor is a gift a man must give to himself.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past.
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!
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?
Suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds.
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American.
The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.
United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.
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(May 29 is also the birthday of G.K. Chesterton, John F. Kennedy, and T.H. White.)
Categories: Patrick Henry, Quotes of the day
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