Henry Clay

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.

In the little affairs of human life, whether social or national, I have found that courtesies, kindness, and small attentions are often received with more grateful feelings than those of a more substantial character. We often appreciate …

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 …

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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 …

It is the thing protected, not the instrument of protection, that involves you in war.

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

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 ….

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.

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

How often are we forced to charge fortune with partiality towards the unjust!