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I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.

— Patrick Henry Speech in the Second Virginia Convention (1775)

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More quotes by Patrick Henry

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.

Speech in the Second Virginia Convention (1775)

The great object is that every man be armed… Everyone who is able may have a gun.

I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.

Speech in the Virginia Convention (1775)

A King, by disallowing Acts of this salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerated into a Tyrant and forfeits all rights to his subjects' obedience.

Speech on the Parson's Cause (1763)

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1973)

From now on, everything in life will appear blurry to me. What’s the point of wiping my glasses when my vision has already left me?"

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You can never plan the future by the past.

Edmund Burke A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791)

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.

Abraham Cowley Poems (1656)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Patrick Henry (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.