Patrick Henry Quotes

A prominent figure in the American Revolution, known and remembered primarily for his stirring oratory.
(1736 - 1799)

Are we at last brought to such an humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms under our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?

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.
[Liberty]

Csesar 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. [Treason]

Fear is the passion of slaves.

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. [Anguish]

Give me liberty, or give me death. [Liberty]

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! [Attention]

Have we the means of resisting disciplined armies, when our only defense, the militia, is put in the hands of Congress?

I am not a Virginian, but an American. [Patriotism]

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. [Experience]

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. [Religion]

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.

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

I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death.

I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

If this be treason, make the most of it!

If we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained - we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us.

Implements of war and subjugation are the last arguments to which kings resort. [Kings]

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! [Liberty]

It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.