John C. Calhoun Quotes

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  • Former United States Representative
  • 1782 - 1850
  • 116 quotes

John C. Calhoun, Former United States Representative (1782 - 1850), is quoted 116 times on QuoteForever. The subjects that come up most often are Government, Liberty, Protection and Congress.

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Beware the wrath of a patient adversary.

Protection and patriotism are reciprocal.

A revolution in itself is not a blessing.

It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.

Learn from your mistakes and build on your successes.

Government has within it a tendency to abuse its powers.

In looking back, I see nothing to regret and little to correct.

War may be made by one party, but it requires two to make peace.

In looking back, I see nothing to regret, and little to correct.

We are not a nation, but a union, a confederacy of equal and sovereign states.

We make a great mistake in supposing all people are capable of self-government.

The surrender of life is nothing to sinking down into acknowledgment of inferiority.

Irresponsible power is inconsistent with liberty, and must corrupt those who exercise it.

It is no less the duty of the minority than a majority to endeavour to defend the country.

Protection and patriotism are reciprocal. This is the way which has led nations to greatness.

The will of a majority is the will of a rabble. Progressive democracy is incompatable with liberty.

War may make us great, but let it never be forgotten that peace only can make us both great and free.

There is often, in the affairs of government, more efficiency and wisdom in non-action than in action.

The object of a Constitution is to restrain the Government, as that of laws is to restrain individuals.

There is a tendency in all parties, when they have been for a long time in possession of power, to augment it.

I am, on principle, opposed to war and in favor of peace because I regard peace as a positive good and war as a positive evil.

Property is in its nature timid and seeks protection, and nothing is more gratifying to government than to become a protector.

What people can excel our Northern and New England brethren in skill, invention, activity, energy, perseverance, and enterprise?

In my opinion, any navy less than that which would give us the habitual command of our own coast and seas would be little short of useless.

A compromise is but an act of Congress. It may be overruled at any time. It gives us no security. But the Constitution is stable. It is a rock.

Of the two, I considered it more important to avoid a war with England about Oregon than a war with Mexico, important as I thought it was to avoid that.

I am a planter - a cotton planter. I am a Southern man and a slaveholder - a kind and a merciful one, I trust - and none the worse for being a slaveholder.

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.

There never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other.

True consistency, that of the prudent and the wise, is to act in conformity with circumstances and not to act always the same way under a change of circumstances.

True consistency, that of the prudent and the wise, is to act in conformity with circumstances, and not to act always the same way under a change of circumstances.

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 people, you must often oppose them?

We are as good judges of our interest and safety, and the means of preserving them, as the non-slaveholding States are of theirs, and rather better than they can be of ours.

There is but one nation on the globe from which we have anything serious to apprehend, but that is the most powerful that now exists or ever did exist. I refer to Great Britain.

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 benefit of an individual or a party.

I am not one of those who believe that we are bound to vote supplies to cover a deficiency in the treasury whenever called on, without investigating the causes which occasioned it.

I never use the word nation in speaking of the United States. I always use the word Union or Confederacy. We are not a nation but a union, a confederacy of equal and sovereign States.

It is admitted on all sides that we must equalize the revenue and expenditures. The scheme of borrowing to make up an increasing deficit must, in the end, if continued, prove ruinous.

The error is in the assumption that the General Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States ... formed the compact, acting as sovereign and independent communities.

The framers of our constitution had the sagacity to vest in Congress all implied powers: that is, powers necessary and proper to carry into effect all the delegated powers wherever vested.

He is blind indeed who does not see, in the signs of the times, a strong tendency to plunge the Union as deep in debt as are many of the States, and to subjugate the whole to the paper system.

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 States, and distributing equally the benefits and burdens of the Union.

I am impressed with the belief that our naval force ought not to cost more in proportion than the British. In some things they may have the advantage, but we will be found to have equally great in others.

Once established with Great Britain, it would not be difficult, with moderation and prudence, to establish permanent peace with the rest of the world, when our most sanguine hopes of prosperity may be realized.

A difference must be made between a decision against the constitutionality of a law of Congress and of a State. The former acts as a restriction on the powers of this government, but the latter as an enlargement.

What is a permanent loan but a mortgage upon the wealth and industry of the country? It is the only form of indebtedness, as experience has shown, by which heavy and durable encumbrance can be laid upon the community.

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 held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in banks.

The two great agents of the physical world have become subject to the will of man and have been made subservient to his wants and enjoyments; I allude to steam and electricity, under whatever name the latter may be called.

I will not attempt to show that it would be a great evil to increase the patronage of the Executive. It is already enormously great, as every man of every party must acknowledge, if he would candidly express his sentiments.

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 checked, it is the most tyrannical and oppressive that can be devised.

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