Andrew Jackson Quotes

Andrew Jackson offers fierce, plain-spoken rants about power and loyalty that read like a fiery warning.

52 quotes

1. The individual who refuses to defend his rights when called by his Government, deserves to be a slave, and must be punished as an enemy of his country and friend to her foe.

2. The brave man inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country, than the coward who deserts her in the hour of danger.

3. Do they think that I am such a damned fool as to think myself fit for President of the United States? No, sir; I know what I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way, but I am not fit to be President.

4. As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending.

5. Our Federal Union! it must be preserved!

6. It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society - the farmers, mechanics, and laborers - who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government. 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.

7. The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.

8. While I concur with the Synod in the efficacy of prayer, and in the hope that our country may be preserved from the attacks of pestilence 'and that the judgments now abroad in the earth may be sanctified to the nations,' I am constrained to decline the designation of any period or mode as proper for the public manifestation of this reliance. I could not do otherwise without transcending the limits prescribed by the Constitution for the President and without feeling that I might in some degree disturb the security which religion nowadays enjoys in this country in its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government.

9. Hemans gallows ought to be the fate of all such ambitious men who would involve their country in civil wars, and all the evils in its train that they might reign & ride on its whirlwinds & direct the Storm-- The free people of these United States have spoken, and consigned these wicked demagogues to their proper doom.

10. 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.

11. Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we shall all meet in Heaven... I want to meet you all, white and black, in Heaven.

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

13. John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!

14. 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.

15. Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.

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

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

18. I did not hang Calhoun and shoot Clay.

19. You are uneasy; you never sailed with me before, I see.

20. Corporations have neither bodies to kick nor souls to damn.

21. I will go to South Carolina and hang the first secessionist I see from the first tree I can reach.

22. If there is a job that a Democrat can't do, then abolish the job.

23. The Bank is trying to kill me, but I shall kill it!

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

25. You are a nest of vipers and thieves, and by the grace of the almighty God, I will root you out!

26. 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.

27. Never take counsel of your fears.

28. No one need think that the world can be ruled without blood. The civil sword shall and must be red and bloody.

29. One man with courage makes a majority.

30. There are no necessary evils in government. It's evils exist only in it's abuses.

31. I would sincerely regret, and which never shall happen whilst I am in office, a military guard around the President.

32. Disunion by force is treason.

33. It is a well-settled principle of the international code that where one nation owes another a liquidated debt which it refuses or neglects to pay the aggrieved party may seize on the property belonging to the other, its citizens or subjects, sufficient to pay the debt without giving just cause of war.

34. Desperate courage makes One a majority.

35. 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.

36. Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority.

37. Temporize not! It is always injurious.

38. The authority of the Supreme Court must not be permitted to control the Congress or the Executive when acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only such influence as the force of their reasoning may deserve.

39. 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.

40. To extraordinary powers of labor, both mental and physical, he unites that tact and judgement which are requisite to the successful direction of such an office as that of Chief Magistrate of a free people.

41. In England the judges should have independence to protect the people against the crown. Here the judges should not be independent of the people, but be appointed for not more than seven years. The people would always re-elect the good judges.

42. There are, perhaps, few men who can for any length of time enjoy office and power without being more or less under the influence of feelings unfavorable to the faithful discharge of their political duties.

43. I'm free as a bird flying over the sea. Just can't find the summer. If there's a God in the sky or a devil below. That doesn't matter to me. Cus I see Satan's face when I look in the mirror. I see God inside of all of the people I meet. I'm free as a bird. I'm free.

44. I not only rejoice, but congratulate my beloved country Texas is reannexed, and the safety, prosperity, and the greatest interest of the whole Union is secured by this great and important national act.

45. The Supreme Court has made its decision, now let them enforce it.

46. 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!

47. The President is the direct representative of the American people and is elected by the people and responsible to them.

48. I have only two regrets: I didn't shoot Henry Clay and I didn't hang John C. Calhoun.

49. Thomas Paine needs no monument made with hands; he has erected a monument in the hearts of all lovers of liberty.

50. From the earliest ages of history to the present day there have never been thirteen millions of people associated in one political body who enjoyed so much freedom and happiness as the people of these United States. You have no longer any cause to fear dangers from abroad ... It is from within, among yourselves - from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst for power - that factions will be formed and liberty endangered ...

51. I have always been afraid of banks.

52. The Constitution and the laws are supreme and the Union indissoluble.