Quotes from Henry Clay

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

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.

In a scheme of policy which is devised for a nation, we should not limit our views to its operation during a single year, or even for a short term of years. We should look at its operation for a considerable time, and in war as well as in peace.

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 Union, sir, is my country.

I would rather be right than be President.

I would rather be right than 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.

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.

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

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

Statistics are no substitute for judgment.

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.

Statistics are no substitue for judgement.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

I'd rather be right than be President

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.

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

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