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!
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and to provide for it.
- Topic: Truth
- Location: Lake Tahoe
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from Patrick Henry
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.
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 come to dominate our lives and interests.
The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.
More Quotes from Lake Tahoe
More on Truth
There is no disguise which can for long conceal love where it exists or simulate it where it does not.
Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
Without properly kept accounts it is impossible to maintain truth in its pristine purity.
A thief is a man in need. A liar is a man in fear.
We call first truths those we discover after all the others.
Plato is my friend; Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.
Truly, to tell lies is not honorable; but when the truth entails tremendous ruin, to speak dishonorably is pardonable.
Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.
