Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry (1736–1799) was a Founding-era American orator and statesman, best remembered for his “Give me liberty, or give me death!” speech to the Virginia Convention. In Speeches That Changed The World Kyle’s highlight catches his line to the Continental Congress — “I know of no other way of judging the future but by the past” — which the anthology uses as a meditation on history as the only instrument we have for reading what’s ahead.

Where this appears

• Speeches That Changed The World — “I know of no other way of judging the future but by the past.”