Henry Clay Quotes

I would rather be right than President. – Henry Clay

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. – Henry Clay

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

I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe any allegiance. – Henry Clay

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

We should never suffer Cuba to pass from the hands of Spain to any other European power. – Henry Clay

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

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

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

The art of politics is to bring the public voice to coincide with your own opinions. – Henry Clay

A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in banks. – Henry Clay

There is nothing more satisfying than giving our all to a cause and then succeeding. – Henry Clay

Henry Clay Quotes part 2

An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger. – Henry Clay

If you would establish peace on earth, cultivate commerce. – Henry Clay

Consolidate the railroads into a unity and regulate them by law. – Henry Clay

I can never consent to being dictated to as to what I shall or shall not do. I, as one of the sovereign people, have a right to be heard. – Henry Clay

Let it light upon my head, and light upon my children’s heads, in perpetual succession. – Henry Clay

I had rather be right than be President. – Henry Clay

All legislation is founded on the principle of mutual concession. – Henry Clay

We have more than satisfied the original understanding, the compromise between the North and South. – Henry Clay

Talk less, say more. – Henry Clay

Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees. – Henry Clay

You can’t make war in the Middle East without Egypt, and you can’t make peace without Syria. – Henry Clay

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

Statistics are no substitute for judgment. – Henry Clay

I hate a fellow whom pride, or cowardice, or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark. – Henry Clay

If any one is so credulous as to believe that I have had anything to do with the establishment of the Whig party, he is laboring under an entire mistake. – Henry Clay

He who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client. – Henry Clay

If my life be spared, nothing will be more happy or more honorable to me than to have contributed to the accomplishment of the object. – Henry Clay

Beware of the hobby, they are more capricious than women. – Henry Clay

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

The times are too full of calamity and terror to permit people to be indifferent to their public interests. – Henry Clay

We have not made a single gain by the treaty of peace with Great Britain; and have only consented to avoid greater evils. – Henry Clay

To Great Britain alone will belong the glory of removing the odious shackles from commerce and striking the deathblow to the African slave trade. – Henry Clay

I wish popularity, but it is that popularity which follows, not that which is run after. – Henry Clay

The Constitution of the United States was made for longer periods than the frail existence of men. – Henry Clay

In adjusting questions of this character, it should be remembered that the conflict is between the principle of liberty and the fact of slavery; and that all compromises fall short of the full measure of their object. – Henry Clay

If you would establish national prosperity, take care of national freedom; if you would establish national freedom, take care of national character-as our national character, so will be our freedom. – Henry Clay

When we view the glorious achievements of our ancestors in civil liberty, let us rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. – Henry Clay

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. – Henry Clay

We are Americans- the sons and daughters, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren, of the men who achieved our liberty, and established our government, who stretched over our land the network of civil institutions, and bequeathed to us in charge of the Constitution of the United States. – Henry Clay

These insignificant fellows with their evanescent popularity have too much power in our country. – Henry Clay

The free government system is the result of the long continued struggles of our forefathers in finding some plan of government which would elevate the condition of man; and the whole foundation of our cherished system takes its rise in the tenure of religious liberty. – Henry Clay

The art of legislation consists in removing the difficulties which impede the progress of a good cause, and in giving it facilities for motion; it is to be found neither in personal decisions nor in the subject of their application, but in the cause itself. – Henry Clay

It is my pride and my boast that they may all be accommodated by the adoption of principles, and the cultivation of a spirit in me, which are friendly to the widest range of private liberty, consistent with the public welfare. – Henry Clay

The Groundhog is like most other prophets; it delivers its prediction and then disappears. – Henry Clay

I have always raised my voice and cast my vote for the freedom of the press, the right of free discussion and interchange of sentiments. – Henry Clay

No man can rise above the contemptible character of a demagogue. – Henry Clay

We see with other eyes, we hear with other ears; and think with other thoughts, than those we formerly used. – Henry Clay

Economy is always a virtue. – Henry Clay