Henry Clay Quotes

To their entertainments princes invite only the nobility; but when they meet with misfortune, they invite also citizens.

To understand the nature of the people one must be a prince, and to understand the nature of the prince, one must be of the people.

Commoners are not allowed to wear cotton clothing, under pain of death.

I don't go hunting with kings and princes.

Actual aristocracy cannot be abolished by any law: all the law can do is decree how it is to be imparted and who is to acquire it.

I like aristocracy. I like the beauty of aristocracy. I like the hierarchical feeling.

I was no Marie Antoinette. I was not born to nobility, but I had a human right to nobility.

It has always been the aim of royalty and aristocracy to lower the individual liberty and independence of the common people. A baron and a minute-man could not breathe the same air.

Common sense, in so far as it exists, is all for the bourgeoisie. Nonsense is the privilege of the aristocracy. The worries of the world are for the common people.

I am an aristocrat. I love liberty; I hate equality.

Technically, I'm a knight. My family goes back a thousand years in the Naples area. We're a titled, noble people.

Verdiana was the child of poor though well-born parents, and her knowledge of the sufferings of the poor from her own experience in early years made her ever full of pity for those in need.

It has often been said, that there is but one rank of men in America… we have no artificial distinctions of men into noblemen and commoners among us, but it ought to be remarked, that superior degrees of industry and capacity, and above all, commerce, have introduced inequality of property among us, and these have introduced natural distinctions of rank in Pennsylvania, as certain and general as the artificial distinctions of men in Europe. This will ever be the case while commerce exists in this country.

All shall equal be. The Earl, the Marquis, and the Dook, The Groom, the Butler, and the Cook, The Aristocrat who banks with Coutts, The Aristocrat who cleans the boots.

To detail the real evils of aristocracy, they must be seen in Europe.

There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents;... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its ascendancy.

There is no distinction of persons among them, and deference is shown to merit rather than to noble blood.

If there are no superior people to look after a population, the common people have no security.

The Pedigree of Honey Does not concern the Bee- A Clover, any time, to him, Is Aristocracy-

Kings! Why, what's a king? .... Is their blood purer than our own? We are all the seed of Abraham!

What is the use of your pedigrees?

The great families have their privileges.

Noble and common blood is of the same color.

It is better to be the subject of a prince than of a republic, for a republic keeps its subjects under, and gives no share of its greatness save to its own citizens; a prince is common to all, one man is as much his subject as another, therefore every one can hope to be favoured or employed.

… all kinds of government are defective…. sagacious legislators, knowing the vices of each of these systems of government by themselves, have chosen one that should partake of all of them, judging that to be the most stable and solid. In fact, when there is combined under the same constitution a prince, a nobility, and the power of the people, then these three powers will watch and keep each other reciprocally in check.