要么给我自由，要么给我死亡演讲
这是帕特里克·亨利演讲的全文1775年3月23日，在弗吉尼亚州里士满的圣约翰教堂。
总统先生，没有人比我更高度评价刚才在众议院发表讲话的那些非常可敬的先生们的爱国主义精神和能力。但是，不同的人往往从不同的角度看待同一个问题;因此，尽管我的观点与他们的性格截然相反，但我还是要毫无保留地畅所欲言，希望不会被认为是对他们的不尊重。现在不是搞仪式的时候。摆在众议院面前的问题对这个国家来说是一个可怕的时刻。就我个人而言，我认为这是一个自由还是奴役的问题;与主题的重要性成正比的是辩论的自由。只有这样，我们才有希望了解真相，并履行我们对上帝和我们的国家所负有的重大责任。在这种时候，如果我因为害怕冒犯别人而缄口不言，我就会认为自己犯了背叛祖国的罪，犯了对上帝不忠的罪，因为我比世间所有的国王都更崇敬上帝。主席先生，沉溺于希望的幻想是人的天性。面对痛苦的真相，我们往往闭上眼睛，听着海妖的歌声，直到她把我们变成野兽。这是为自由而进行伟大而艰苦的斗争的智者的职责吗?难道我们愿意成为那些有眼睛却看不见，有耳朵却听不见那些与他们暂时的拯救息息相关的事情的人吗?就我而言，无论要付出多少精神上的痛苦，我都愿意知道全部真相;知道最坏的情况，并做好准备。我只有一盏灯引导我的脚步，那就是经验之灯。我只知道通过过去来判断未来。从过去的情况来看，我想知道，过去十年来，英国内阁的行为中有什么可以证明那些先生们乐于用来安慰他们自己和议会的希望是正确的。是最近收到我们的请愿时那种阴险的微笑吗? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging.
我们有什么理由反对他们呢?我们试着争论一下好吗?先生，我们已经试了十年了。关于这个问题，我们有什么新的建议吗?没什么。我们已经从一切可能的角度来讨论这个问题;但这一切都是徒劳的。我们应该诉诸于恳求和谦卑的恳求吗?我们还能找到什么尚未用尽的条件呢?先生，我求求你，我们不要自欺欺人了。 Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
先生，掩盖这件事是徒劳的。先生们也许会呼喊，和平，和平——但是没有和平。战争真的开始了!从北方刮来的下一阵大风，将把武器的碰撞声传到我们的耳朵里!我们的弟兄已经在战场上了!我们为什么站在这里无所事事?绅士们的愿望是什么?他们会有什么?难道生命如此珍贵，和平如此甜美，以至于要用枷锁和奴役来换取吗?全能的上帝，禁止它! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
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