Henry Clay Quotes

Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.

All legislation is founded upon the principle of mutual concession.

A nation's character is the sum of its splendid deeds; they constitute one common patrimony, the nation's inheritance. They awe foreign powers, they arouse and animate our own people.

An oppressed people are authorized whenever
they can to rise and break their fetters.

Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.

Impart additional strength to our happy Union.?Diversified as are the interests of its various parts, how admirably do they harmonize and blend together!?We have only to make a proper use of the bounties spread before us, to render us prosperous and powerful.

I would rather be right than President.

The measure of the wealth of a nation is indicated by the measure of its protection of its industry; the measure of the poverty of a nation is marked by the degree in which it neglects and abandons the care of its own industry, leaving it exposed to the action of foreign powers.

Whether we assert our rights by sea, or attempt their maintenance by land whithersoever we turn ourselves, this phantom incessantly pursues us. Already has it had too much influence on the councils of the nation.

I am not, sir, in favor of cherishing the passion of conquest. I am permitted ... to indulge the hope of seeing, ere long, the new United States, (if you will allow me the expression,) embracing not only the old ...

I hope that it will yet be said, America is America's best customer.

Of all human powers operating on the affairs of mankind, none is greater than that of competition.

The arts of power and its minions are the same in all countries and in all ages. It marks its victim; denounces it; and excites the public odium and the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments.

How often are we forced to charge fortune with partiality towards the unjust!

War unhinges society, disturbs its peaceful and regular industry, and scatters poisonous seeds of disease and immorality, which continue to germinate and diffuse their baneful influence long after it has ceased. Dazzling by its glitter, pomp and pageantry, it begets a spirit of wild adventure and romantic enterprise, and often disqualifies those who embark in it, after their return from the bloody fields of battle, from engaging in the industrious and peaceful vocations of life.

Sir, I would rather be right than to be President.

All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All, separated from government, are compatible with liberty.

Honor and good faith and justice are equally due from this country toward the weak as toward the strong.

How is it with the President? Is he powerless? He is felt from one extremity to the other of this vast Republic. By means of principles which he has introduced, and innovations which he has made in our institutions, alas! but too much countenanced by Congress and a confiding people, he exercises, uncontrolled, the power of the State. In

We have had good and bad Presidents, and it is a consoling reflection that the American Nation possesses such elements of prosperity that the bad Presidents cannot destroy it, and have been able to do no more than slightly to retard the public's advancement.

All legislation, all government, all society is founded upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, comity, courtesy; upon these everything is based ... Let him who elevates himself above humanity, above its weaknesses, its infirmities, its wants, its necessities, say, if he pleases, I will never compromise; but let no one who is not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromises.

Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees. And both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.

There is no power like oratory. Caesar controlled men by exciting their fears, Cicero by ... swaying their passions. The influence of the one perished; that of the other continues to this day.

Statistics are no substitue for judgement.

Let him who elevates himself above humanity ... say, if he pleases, "I will never compromise"; but let no one who is not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromise.

The great advantage of our system of government over all others, is, that we have a written constitution, defining its limits, and prescribing its authorities; and that, however, for a time, faction may convulse the nation, and passion and party prejudice sway its functionaries, the season of reflection will recur, when calmly retracing their deeds, all aberrations from fundamental principle will be corrected.

Precedents deliberately established by wise men are entitled to great weight. They are evidence of truth, but only evidence ... But a solitary precedent ... which has never been reexamined, cannot be conclusive.

I had rather be right than be President.

The time will come when Winter will ask you what you were doing all Summer.