Best Patrick Henry Quotes

Patrick Henry Quotes About Guns, Government, Religion, The Constitution, Jesus Christ, War,  Liberty & God! “Give me liberty or give me death!” was a famous quote from Patrick Henry, an American Revolutionary War hero, and lawyer. In Hanover County, Virginia, he was Born on May 29th, 1736. Henry’s father, a Scottish university graduate, and his uncle, an Anglican preacher, provided most of Henry’s early education. He learned to play the violin and the flute as a kid. With the “Parson’s Cause” lawsuit in 1763, Henry gained notoriety as a dynamic and persuasive speaker as a lawyer.

Henry won the House of Burgesses election in 1765. He established himself as an early critic of the British Empire’s colonial policy. He voiced his opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765, which essentially taxed all forms of printed paper used by the colonists throughout the debates. When it came to the burgeoning insurrection against Britain, Henry had a unique capacity to convert his political theory into the vernacular of the average person. In 1774, he was chosen to represent the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

Henry delivered his most famous speech the following year. At the Virginia Convention in March 1775, he spoke. As a politician, he contributed to writing the state’s constitution in 1776. During the same year, the people of Virginia elected him as the state’s first governor. Henry was a strong supporter of the Revolutionary War while serving as the governor of New Hampshire.

This man was instrumental in providing troops and supplies to George Washington. George Rogers Clark led a Virginia army that he led to drive away from British soldiers in the northwest of his state. Henry served as governor for two more terms in the mid-1780s. Henry resigned from government duty in 1790. He returned to the legal profession and now has a successful practice. He passed away on June 6th, 1799, at his Red Hill estate.

Best Patrick Henry Quotes

1. “Give me liberty or give me death!” — Patrick Henry

2. “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

3. “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 comes to dominate our lives and interests.” — Patrick Henry

4. “When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.” — Patrick Henry

5. “Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings – give us that precious jewel, and you may take every thing else!” — Patrick Henry

6. “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.” — Patrick Henry

7. “Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our 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?” — Patrick Henry

8. “Fear is the passion of slaves.” — Patrick Henry

9. “We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists.” — Patrick Henry

10. “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?” — Patrick Henry

11. “The great object is that every man be armed.” — Patrick Henry

12. “The first thing I have at heart is American liberty; the second thing is American union.” — Patrick Henry

13. “A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom.” — Patrick Henry

14. “You are not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you are to become a great and powerful people, but how your liberties can be secured; for liberty ought to be the direct end of your government.” — Patrick Henry

15. “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. “Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship.” — Patrick Henry

17. “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

18. “Gentlemen may cry, ‘Peace! Peace!’ — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” — Patrick Henry

19. “It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains.” — Patrick Henry

20. “Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation the last arguments to which kings resort.” — Patrick Henry

21. “Three million 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.” — Patrick Henry

22. “They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house?” — Patrick Henry

23. “If we wish to be free we must fight, I repeat, we must fight.” — Patrick Henry

24. “Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.” — Patrick Henry

25. “A small, disciplined militia can not only hold out against a larger force but drive it back, because what they’re fighting for rightfully belongs to them.” — Patrick Henry

26. “I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.” — Patrick Henry

27. “If this be treason, make the most of it!” — Patrick Henry

28. “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.” — Patrick Henry

29. “United we stand, divided we fall.” — Patrick Henry

30. “Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.” — Patrick Henry