Quotes about Henry Clay

3 Sourced Quotes

During my whole political life, I have loved and revered (Henry Clay) as a teacher and leader.

Abraham Lincoln

On his deathbed, when asked if he had left anything undone:

I didn't shoot Henry Clay, and I didn't hang John C. Calhoun.

There are some good things and some fantastic ones in Auden's early attitude; if the reader calls it a muddle I shall acquiesce, with the remark that the later position might be considered a more rarefied muddle. But poets rather specialize in muddles—and I have no doubt which of the muddles was better for Auden's poetry: one was fertile and usable, the other decidedly is not. Auden sometimes seems to be saying with Henry Clay, I had rather be right than poetry ; but I am not sure, then, that he is either.

Randall Jarrell