Daniel Webster (1782-1852)

Quotes

• I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American.

• A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.

• Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.

• God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it.

• Justice is the greatest interest of man on earth.

• Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth our powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.

• The materials of wealth are in the earth, in the seas, and in their natural and unaided productions.

• The contest, for ages, has been to rescue Liberty from the grasp of executive power.

• Mind is the great lever of all things.

• If we abide by the principles taught by the Bible, our country will go on prospering.

• I still live.

• The world is governed more by appearances than realities, so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it.

• Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.

• A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.

• An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, the power to destroy.

• Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital.

• God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.

• There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.

• Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.

• Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government.