Henry Knox Quotes

He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny has a better title to Defender of the Faith, than George the Third.

What has commonly been called rebellion has more often been nothing but a glorious struggle in opposition to the lawless power of rebellious kings and princes

Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

The minds of men are at last aroused; reason looks out and justifies her own, and malice finds all her work is ruin.

Law represents the effort of man to organize society; governments, the efforts of selfishness to overthrow liberty.

Give me liberty or give me death.

If the king did not, without tiring, inflict punishment on those worthy to be punished, the stronger would roast the weaker, like fish on a spit

The Law! It is the arch-crime of the centuries. The path of Man is soaked with the blood it has shed. Can this great criminal determine Right? Is a revolutionist to respect such a travesty? It would mean the perpetuation of human slavery.

Better 100 years of tyranny than one day of anarchy.

Law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.

The great question which, in all ages, has disturbed mankind, and brought on them the greatest part of those mischiefs which have ruined cities, depopulated countries, and disordered the peace of the world, has been, not whether there be power in the world, nor whence it came, but who should have it.

The government in a revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.

Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.

The altar of liberty totters when it is cemented only with blood

The coming struggle will be fought by Europe as a whole for the sacred national rights of all peoples against tyranny.

Tyrannicide: Tyranny is a crime.

Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive, that they must be thrown off even at the risk of reigns of terror.

Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression

I hold to be of itself a lesson for all those who love liberty, and who would extend its blessings to their country. Men are not to be pedants in liberty, any more than in virtue. Though they are not to be oppressed by tyrants, they must at least be governed by their fellow-men. The great principles of independence in the heart of man are to be cherished and upheld; but order, prosperity, the purposes of society, must be accomplished. The many must delegate the government of themselves to the few. Control, executive power, must be lodged somewhere …

I went to Boston fully expecting to be arrested - arrested by a polizia created by a government that my ancestors rebelled to establish.

My great objection to this government is, that it does not leave us the means of defending our rights, or of waging war against tyrants.

Terrorists can only take my life. Only my government can take my freedom.

We look back, already, with astonishment, at the daring outrages committed by despotism, on the reason and rights of man; we look forward with joy, to the period, when it shall be despoiled of all its usurpations, and bound forever in the chains, with which it had loaded its miserable victims.

And now, what has Anarchism to say to all this, this bankruptcy of republicanism, this modern empire that has grown up on the ruins of our early freedom? We say this, that the sin our fathers sinned was that they did not trust liberty wholly. They thought it possible to compromise between liberty and government, believing the latter to be 'a necessary evil,' and the moment the compromise was made, the whole misbegotten monster of our present tyranny began to grow. Instruments which are set up to safeguard rights become the very whip with which the free are struck.

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.