Henry Clay Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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.

  Henry Clay

  Country, Art, Hatred

  Speech in the Senate, 14 March 1834

  65 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henry Clay

  Trust, Government, People

  Henry Clay (2015). “The Papers of Henry Clay: Candidate, Compromiser, Whig, March 5, 1829-December 31, 1836”, p.42, University Press of Kentucky

  80 Copy quote

• The time will come when winter will ask what you were doing all summer.

  Henry Clay

  Inspirational, Summer, Wrestling

  48 Copy quote

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

  Henry Clay

  Business, Character, Men

  Henry Clay (1981). “The Papers of Henry Clay: Secretary of State 1827”, p.769, University Press of Kentucky

  77 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henry Clay

  Political, Leaving, Politics

  Henry Clay, William Branch Giles (1827). “Mr. Clay's Speech on the Tariff: Or, The "American System," So Called ; Or, The Anglican System, in Fact, Introduced Here ; and Perverted in Its Most Material Bearing Upon Society, by the Omission of a System of Corn Laws, for the Protection of Agriculture”, p.80

  55 Copy quote

• Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.

  Henry Clay

  Ifs

  Speech, 8 January 1813, in C. Colton (ed.) 'The Works of Henry Clay' (1904) vol. 1, p. 197.

  39 Copy quote

• The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.

  Henry Clay

  America, Democracy, United States

  Henry Clay (1863). “Life and times”, p.344

  58 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henry Clay

  Government, Humanity, Weakness

  63 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henry Clay

  Reflection, President, Able

  Henry Clay (2015). “The Papers of Henry Clay: Candidate, Compromiser, Elder Statesman, January 1, 1844-June 29, 1852”, p.553, University Press of Kentucky

  70 Copy quote

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

  Henry Clay

  Thanksgiving, Thankful, Gratitude

  72 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henry Clay

  Humanity, Common, Compromise

  67 Copy quote

• I cannot believe that the killing of 2,000 Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies a person for the various difficult and complicated duties of the Presidency.

  Henry Clay

  Believe, New Orleans, Complicated

  "Seventh president a mass of contradictions" by Todd Leopold, www.cnn.com. December 16, 2008.

  35 Copy quote

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

  Henry Clay

  People, Revolution, Rebellion

  Henry Clay (1857). “The speeches of Henry Clay”, p.142

  61 Copy quote

• Statistics are no substitute for judgment.

  Henry Clay

  Funny, Humorous, Teaching

  23 Copy quote

• All legislation is founded upon the principle of mutual concession.

  Henry Clay

  Principles, Legislation, Mutual

  "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell", www.nbcnews.com. March 16, 2011.

  32 Copy quote

• I had rather be right than be President.

  Henry Clay

  Political, President, Politics

  Quoted in Niles' Register, 23 Mar. 1839

  11 Copy quote

• I have heard something said about allegiance to the South. I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe any allegiance.

  Henry Clay

  Patriotism, East, West

  Speech in the Senate (1848)

  18 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henry Clay

  Fear, Passion, Men

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henry Clay

  Party, Passion, Reflection

  Henry Clay (2015). “The Papers of Henry Clay: The Rising Statesman, 1797-1814”, p.537, University Press of Kentucky

  26 Copy quote

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

  Henry Clay

  Competition, Affair, Mankind

  Henry Clay (1857). “The speeches of Henry Clay”, p.469

  10 Copy quote

• Political parties serve to keep each other in check, one keenly watching the other.

  Henry Clay

  Party, Political, Politics

  8 Copy quote

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

  Henry Clay

  Country, Strong, Justice

  Henry Clay (1863). “Life and times”, p.28

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henry Clay

  Passion, Expression, Long

  Henry Clay (1842). “Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay, of the Congress of the United States”, p.24

  39 Copy quote

• The imposition of taxes has its limits. There is a maximum which cannot be transcended. Suppose the citizen to be taxed by the general government to the utmost extent of his ability, or a thing as much as it can possibly bear, and the state imposes a tax at the same time, which authority is to take it?

  Henry Clay

  Government, Citizens, Limits

  Henry Clay (2015). “The Papers of Henry Clay: Presidential Candidate, 1821-1824”, p.587, University Press of Kentucky

  27 Copy quote

• I'd rather be right than President.

  Henry Clay

  Inspirational, Ironic, President

  Quoted in Niles' Register, 23 Mar. 1839

  6 Copy quote

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