Henry Clay Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of Henry Clay's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Former United States Representative Henry Clay's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 40 quotes on this page collected since April 13, 1777! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
  • 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.

    Rights   Sea   Land  
    Henry Clay (1857). “The speeches of Henry Clay”, p.20
  • 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.

    Henry Clay (2015). “The Papers of Henry Clay: The Rising Statesman, 1797-1814”, p.531, University Press of Kentucky
  • Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.

    Henry Clay (1981). “The Papers of Henry Clay: Secretary of State 1827”, p.769, University Press of Kentucky
  • Political parties serve to keep each other in check, one keenly watching the other.

  • I had rather be right than be President.

    Quoted in Niles' Register, 23 Mar. 1839
  • 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 (1842). “Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay, of the Congress of the United States”, p.24
  • 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.

    Country   Art   Hatred  
    Speech in the Senate, 14 March 1834
  • The colors that float from the masthead should be the credentials of our seamen. There is no safety to us, and the gentlemen have shown it, but in the rule that all who sail under the flag (not being enemies) are protected by the flag.

    "Memorable American Speeches, Volume II: Democracy and Nationality". Book collected and edited by John Vance Cheney, 1907-1910.
  • 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.

    Wise   Men   Weight  
    Speech, Senate, February 18, 1835.
  • Honor and good faith and justice are equally due from this country toward the weak as toward the strong.

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

    Powerful   Together   Use  
    Calvin Colton, Henry Clay (1857). “The Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry Clay: In Six Volumes”, p.51
  • 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.

    Men   Doubt   Fool  
  • Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.

    Ifs  
    Speech, 8 January 1813, in C. Colton (ed.) 'The Works of Henry Clay' (1904) vol. 1, p. 197.
  • All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All, separated from government, are compatible with liberty.

    Calvin Colton, Henry Clay (1857). “The Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry Clay: In Six Volumes”, p.223
  • I have no commiseration for princes. My sympathies are reserved for the great mass of mankind ….

    Calvin Colton, Henry Clay (1857). “The Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry Clay: In Six Volumes”, p.210
  • 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.

    "Seventh president a mass of contradictions" by Todd Leopold, www.cnn.com. December 16, 2008.
  • The time will come when winter will ask what you were doing all summer.

  • Statistics are no substitute for judgment.

  • The gentleman cannot have forgotten his own sentiment, uttered even on the floor of this House, Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.

    Speech, 8 January 1813, in C. Colton (ed.) 'The Works of Henry Clay' (1904) vol. 1, p. 197.
  • All legislation is founded upon the principle of mutual concession.

    "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell", www.nbcnews.com. March 16, 2011.
  • A nation's character is the sum of its splendid deeds; they constitute one common patrimony, the nation's inheritance. They awe foreign powers, they arouse and animate our own people.

    Henry Clay (2015). “The Papers of Henry Clay: The Rising Statesman 1815--1820”, p.149, University Press of Kentucky
  • 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, 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
  • 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 (2015). “The Papers of Henry Clay: Presidential Candidate, 1821-1824”, p.587, University Press of Kentucky
  • 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 (2015). “The Papers of Henry Clay: Candidate, Compromiser, Whig, March 5, 1829-December 31, 1836”, p.42, University Press of Kentucky
  • If you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean.

    Ocean   Political   Wish  
    Speech in the House of Representatives, 22 January 1812
  • 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 (2015). “The Papers of Henry Clay: Candidate, Compromiser, Elder Statesman, January 1, 1844-June 29, 1852”, p.553, University Press of Kentucky
  • Of all human powers operating on the affairs of mankind, none is greater than that of competition.

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

    Henry Clay (1843). “The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay ...”, p.37
  • 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.

  • 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 (1863). “Life and times”, p.344
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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 40 quotes from the Former United States Representative Henry Clay, starting from April 13, 1777! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!
    Henry Clay quotes about: Character Constitution Mankind Passion Politics

    Henry Clay

    • Born: April 13, 1777
    • Died: June 29, 1852
    • Occupation: Former United States Representative