Henry Clay Quotes
April 12, 1777 – June 29, 1852
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I have no commiseration for princes. My sympathies are reserved for the great mass of mankind ….
Speech on the Line of the Perdido, Senate (25 December 1810). 
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More Henry Clay Quotes
An oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters.
Henry Clay— Speech on the Emancipation of South America, House of Representatives (24 March 1818); The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay, vol. I (1857), ed. Daniel Mallory
How often are we forced to charge fortune with partiality towards the unjust!
Henry Clay— Letter (4 December 1801), printed in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (2002)
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.
Henry Clay— Speech on the Line of the Perdido, Senate (25 December 1810).
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— Speech on the Line of the Perdido, Senate (25 December 1810).
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— Speech in the Senate on the National Bank Charter (February 11, 1811).
The great advantage of our system of government over all others, is, that we have a written constitution, defining its limits, and prescribing its authorities; and that, however, for a time, faction may convulse the nation, and passion and party prejudice sway its functionaries, the season of reflection will recur, when calmly retracing their deeds, all aberrations from fundamental principle will be corrected.
Henry Clay— Speech in the Senate on the National Bank Charter (February 11, 1811).
If you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean.
Henry Clay— Speech on the Increase of the Navy, House of Representatives (22 January 1812).
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.
Henry Clay— Speech on the Increase of the Navy, House of Representatives (22 January 1812).
The gentleman cannot have forgotten his own sentiment, uttered even on the floor of this House, "Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must."
Henry Clay— Speech on the New Army Bill, House of Representatives, (8 January 1813), paraphasing Josiah Quincy III's "amicably if they can, violently if they must"; The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay, vol. I (1857), ed. Daniel Mallory
All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All, separated from government, are compatible with liberty.
Henry Clay— Speech on the Emancipation of South America], House of Representatives (24 March 1818); The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay, vol. I (1857), ed. Daniel Mallory
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— Speech at the public dinner at Fowler's Garden, Lexington, Kentucky, May 16, 1829, printed in Niles' Weekly Register, Vol. 36 (1829), at p. 399.
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.
Henry Clay— Speech, Senate (14 March 1834).
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.
Henry Clay— Speech, Senate (18 February 1835).
Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.
Henry Clay— Reported in The Clay Code, or Text-Book of Eloquence, a Collection of Axioms, Apothegms, Sentiments … Gathered from the Public Speeches of Henry Clay, ed. G. Vandenhoff (1844), p. 93.
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— Letter to David Mundell (12 October 1848) in which Clay reflects upon his failure to win the Presidency.
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— Speech, Senate (29 January 1850).
I would rather be right than be President.
Henry Clay— Speech, Senate (1850), referring to the Compromise Measures.
An oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters.
Henry Clay— Speech on the Emancipation of South America, House of Representatives (24 March 1818); The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay, vol. I (1857), ed. Daniel Mallory
