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Henry Clay Quotes
1777–1852 United States
Henry Clay (12 April 1777 – 29 June 1852) was a leading American statesman and orator who served in both the House of Representatives and Senate. Known as "The Great Compromiser" and "The Great Pacifier" for his ability to bring others to agreement, he was the founder and leader of the Whig Party and a leading advocate of programs for modernizing the economy, especially tariffs to protect industry, a national bank and internal improvements to promote canals, ports and railroads.
United States Episcopalians Lawyers Orators Politicians Also known as: Clay, Henry
Random Henry Clay quote
23 quotes
How often are we forced to charge fortune with partiality towards the unjust!
Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.
An oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters.
I would rather be right than be President.
The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity—unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.
It is the thing protected, not the instrument of protection, that involves you in war.
I have no commiseration for princes. My sympathies are reserved for the great mass of mankind ….
The gentleman cannot have forgotten his own sentiment, uttered even on the floor of this House, "Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must."
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.
Sir, I would rather be right than be President.
speech (1850)
If you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean.
All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All, separated from government, are compatible with liberty.
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.
The gentleman [Josiah Quincy] cannot have forgotten his own sentiment, uttered even on the floor of this House, "Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must."
speech on the New Army Bill (1813)
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.
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.
the U.S. Senate (1848)
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.
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.
Yes, sir, from Constantinople, or from the Brazils; from Turk or christian; from black or white; from the dey of Algiers or the bey of Tunis; from the devil himself, if he wore a crown, we should receive a minister.
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.
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