Patrick Henry aligned himself against ratification. So did Richard Henry Lee.
— Douglas Southall Freeman
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Character is the essence of all that a man has seen in life and regards as high and exalted. Character is like truth: the substance of the things that a man has forgotten but the substance of the things that are worth remembering in life.
What is character? It is that quality of man which is going to make a man, in an hour of strain, do the just and, if possible, the generous thing.
The incurably suspicious Arthur Lee, youngest brother of Richard Henry, was of opinion that what others termed 'errors' in the Constitution were a deliberate scheme to create an oligarchy.
Man was made to be immortal; else, he could not survive being the fool he is.
Character is the starting point from which we go on. When I say a man has character, I mean that when you go to that man and say, 'What are the facts in this case?' he will tell you the truth, justly, truly, and wisely as he knows, with the minimum of exhibitionism and the maximum of devotion to the common cause.
Time alone is irreplaceable. Waste it not.
I would say that the study of history is that which gives man the greatest optimism, for if man were not destined by his Maker to go on until the Kingdom of Heaven is attained, man would have been extinguished long ago by reason of all man's mistakes and frailties.
Character is that quality of mind which makes truth-telling instinctive rather than strange.
