“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!” - Patrick Henry
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security”
A few of my favorite Revolutionary War quotes I ran across this weekend that are probably lesser known, but just as inspiring and applicable!:
“A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.” - The Rights of Man, Part 2, 1792 (Thomas Paine)
“Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.” - Letter to William Cushing, June 9, 1776 (John Adams)
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” - Address to the Military, October 11, 1798 (John Adams)
“The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.” - Speech in the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775 (Patrick Henry)