John C. Calhoun Quotes

32 quotes in 506 categories

• The Government of the absolute majority instead of the Government of the people is but the Government of the strongest interests; and when not efficiently…
• The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily…
• The Union next to our liberties the most dear. May we all remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the…
• It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.
• A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various powerful interests, combined in one mass, and…
• The error is in the assumption that the General Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States ... formed the compact, acting as…
• The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the…
• [The taxing power of the state] divides the community into two great classes: one consisting of those who, in reality, pay the taxes and, of…
• Democracy, as I understand it, requires me to sacrifice myself for the masses, not to them. Who knows not that if you would save the…
• Protection and patriotism are reciprocal.
• The defence of human liberty against the aggressions of despotic power have been always the most efficient in States where domestic slavery was to prevail.
• A revolution in itself is not a blessing.
• In looking back, I see nothing to regret and little to correct.
• Learn from your mistakes and build on your successes.
• The surrender of life is nothing to sinking down into acknowledgment of inferiority.
• The object of a Constitution is to restrain the Government, as that of laws is to restrain individuals.
• Irresponsible power is inconsistent with liberty, and must corrupt those who exercise it.
• To maintain the ascendancy of the Constitution over the lawmaking majority is the great and essential point on which the success of the [American] system…
• I take higher ground. I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other…
• It would be well for those interested to reflect whether there now exists, or ever has existed, a wealthy and civilized community in which one…

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