Henry Clay Quotes. C.N. Douglas, comp. 1917. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical

C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.

Henry Clay


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.	1
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.	2
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.	3
I have heard something said about allegience to the south: I know no south, no north, no east, no west, to which I owe any allegiance.	4
In all the affairs of human life, social as well as political, I have remarked that courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest to the grateful and appreciating heart.	5
Political parties serve to keep each other in check, one keenly watching the other.	6
Sir, I would rather be right than be president.	7
There is no power like that of oratory. Cæsar controlled men by exciting their fears; Cicero, by captivating their affections and swaying their passions. The influence of the one perished with its author; that of the other continues to this day.	8