31 Top Quotes By Henry Clay Worth Noting

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

Character

  

Statistics are no substitute for judgment.

  

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

  

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.

  

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.

  

If you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean.

  

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

  

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.

  

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.

  

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.

Never

  

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.

  

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 ....

Me

  

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.

  

All legislation is founded upon the principle of mutual concession.

  

Statistics are no substitue for judgement.

  

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?

Time

  

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

Time

  

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.

Time

  

Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.

  

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

  

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

Character

  

In all cases where incidental powers are acted upon, the principal and incidental ought to be congenial with each other, and partake of a common nature. The incidental power ought to be strictly subordinate and limited to the end proposed to be obtained by the specified power. In other words, under the name of accomplishing one object which is specified, the power implied ought not to be made to embrace other objects, which are not specified in the constitution.

  

Recognize at all times the paramount right of your Country to your most devoted services, whether she treat you ill or well, and never let selfish views or interests predominate over the duties of patriotism.

Never

  

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

  

By competition the total amount of supply is increased, and by increase of the supply a competition in the sale ensues, and this enables the consumer to buy at lower rates. Of all human powers operating on the affairs of mankind, none is greater than that of competition.

  

I have no commiseration for princes. My sympathies are reserved for the great mass of mankind ….

  

I always have had, and always shall have, a profound regard for Christianity, the religion of my fathers, and for its rights, its usages and observances.

  

A man must be a born fool who voluntarily engages in controversy with Mr. Adams on a question of fact. I doubt whether he was ever mistaken in his life.

Life

  

Their disappearance from the human family would be no great loss to the world.

Family

  

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

  

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