Henry Clay Quotes

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

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.

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

The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.

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

Let him who elevates himself above humanity . . . say, if he pleases, "I will never compromise"; but let no one who is not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromise.

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.

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.

The time will come when winter will ask what you were doing all summer.

Statistics are no substitute for judgment.