Andrew Jackson Quotes That Are reform, expansion and controversy

Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.

You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning.

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses.

I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me.

There never was a woman like her. She was gentle as a dove and brave as a lioness... The memory of my mother and her teachings were, after all, the only capital I had to start life with, and on that capital I have made my way.

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is having lots to do and not doing it.

Freemasonry is an ancient and respectable institution, embracing individuals of every nation, of every religion, and of every condition in life. Wealth, power and talents are not necessary to the person of a Freemason. An unblemished character and a virtuous conduct are the only qualifications for admission into the Order.

But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.

One man with courage makes a majority.

All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.

I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office.

I am one of those who do not believe that a national debt is a national blessing, but rather a curse to a republic; inasmuch as it is calculated to raise around the administration a moneyed aristocracy dangerous to the liberties of the country.

Freemasonry is an institution calculated to benefit mankind.

When the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.

You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out.

It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.

The bold effort the present (central) bank had made to control the government .

.. are but premonitions of the fate that await the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution or the establishment of another like it.

Go to the Scriptures... the joyful promises it contains will be a balsam to all your troubles.

From his proceedings in Congress, he appears demented, and his actings and doings inspire my pity more than anger.

I find virtue to be found amongst the farmers of the country alone, not about courts, where courtiers dwell.

Freemasonry is a moral order, instituted by virtuous men, with the praiseworthy design of recalling to our remembrance the most sublime truths, in the midst of the most innocent and social pleasures, founded on liberality, brotherly love and charity.

The people are the government, administering it by their agents;

they are the government, the sovereign power.

Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there.

Secession, like any other REVOLUTIONARY ACT, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call it a constitutional right is confounding the meaning of terms.

Live within your means, never be in debt, and by husbanding your money you can always lay it out well.

Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.

I have never in my life seen a Kentuckian who didn't have a gun, a pack of cards, and a jug of whiskey.

War is a blessing compared with national degradation.

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.

Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering.

You must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.

Too much praise cannot be bestowed on those who managed my artillery.

Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority.

I hope and trust to meet you in Heaven, both white and black-both white and black.

That those tribes [the Sac and Fox Indians] cannot exist surrounded by our settlements and in continual contact with our citizensis certain. They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition.

Every good citizen makes his country's honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.

This spirit of mob-law is becoming as great an evil as a servile war.

It was settled by the Constitution, the laws, and the whole practice of the government that the entire executive power is vested in the President of the United States.

I trust in due time to lay the perfidy, meanness, and wickedness of [Henry] Clay naked before the American people. I have lately got an intimation of some of his secret movements, which, if I can reach with positive and responsible proof, I will wield to his political, and perhaps his actual, destruction.

In a free government the demand for moral qualities should be made superior to that of talents.

I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed.

If they [Mexicans] touch the hair of the head of one of our citizens, tell him [Commodore Dallas] to batter down and destroy their town and exterminate the inhabitants from the face of the earth!

Mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges... which are employed altogether for their benefit.

Democracy shows not only its power in reforming governments, but in regenerating a race of men and this is the greatest blessing of free governments.

I feel in the depths of my soul that it is the highest, most sacred, and most irreversible part of my obligation to preserve the union of these states, although it may cost me my life.

The Judas of the West has closed the contract and will receive the thirty pieces of silver. . . . Was there ever witnessed such a bare faced corruption in any country before?

The safety of the republic being the supreme law, and Texas having offered us the key to the safety of our country from all foreign intrigues and diplomacy, I say accept the key... and bolt the door at once.

The great constitutional corrective in the hands of the people against usurpation of power, or corruption by their agents is the right of suffrage; and this when used with calmness and deliberation will prove strong enough.

There is nothing that I shudder at more than the idea of a separation of the Union. Should such an event ever happen, which I fervently pray God to avert, from that date I view our liberty gone.