Andrew Jackson Quotes: Smart tips on motivation, leadership, psychology, and relationships to become an even better you. These top quotes will give you a first-hand account of his presidency and the conflicts he’d come to face throughout his life. In his lifetime, Andrew Jackson was a figure that was larger-than-life. He was the first president born in poverty and was a prisoner of war, but at the same time, he was also a self-taught lawyer who’d become established as the hero of the West. His life was a literal rollercoaster, and there’s surely much for us to learn.
Which of These Andrew Jackson Quotes Gave Light to Both Ends of the Spectrum? A lot of people are torn about Andrew Jackson’s legacy—after all, he supported the removal of the Native Americans from their lands, which ended with the Trail of Tears. Was he a hero or was he a villain? That’s the question a lot of people ask when it comes to him. And though there may have been negative impacts and results from his previous decisions, we cannot deny the fact that as the father of the modern Democratic Party, he and his supporters fought for the rights and the voice of the common people. How do you view Andrew Jackson and his administration? Was he a hero for you? Or was he a villain?
1. “In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people, no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another.” — Andrew Jackson
2. “The Judas of the West has closed the contract and will receive thirty pieces of silver. Has there ever witnessed such bare faced corruption in any country before?” — Andrew Jackson
3. “I was born for the storm, and a calm does not suit me.” — Andrew Jackson
4. “Private property is held sacred in all good governments, and particularly in our own. Yet, shall the fear of invading it prevent a general from marching his army over a cornfield or burning a house which protects the enemy? A thousand other instances might be cited to show that laws must sometimes be silent when necessity speaks.” — Andrew Jackson
5. “The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer form the great body of the people of the United States. They are the bone and sinew of the countrymen who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws.” — Andrew Jackson
6. “The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.” — Andrew Jackson
7. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson Quotes
8. “I say to you, never involve yourself in debt, and become no man’s surety.” — Andrew Jackson
9. “There goes a man made by the Lord Almighty and not by his tailor.” — Andrew Jackson
10. “I do not forget that I am a mechanic. I am proud to own it. Neither do I forget that the apostle Paul was a tentmaker; Socrates was a sculptor; and Archimedes was a mechanic.” — Andrew Jackson
11. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
12. “I’ve got big shoes to fill. This is my chance to do something. I have to seize the moment.” — Andrew Jackson
13. “I do not promise to believe tomorrow exactly what I believe today, and I do not believe today exactly what I believed yesterday. I expect to make, as I have made, some honest progress within every succeeding twenty-four hours.” — Andrew Jackson
14. “No free government can stand without virtue in the people and a lofty spirit of patriotism.” — Andrew Jackson
15. “I am now eased in my finances and replenished in my wardrobe.” — Andrew Jackson
16. “When you get in debt, you become a slave.” — Andrew Jackson
17. “The Supreme Court has made its decision, now let them enforce it.” — Andrew Jackson
18. “Being the dependents of the general government, and looking to its treasury as the source of all their emoluments, the state officers, under whatever names they might pass and by whatever forms their duties might be prescribed, would in effect be the mere stipendiaries and instruments of the central power.” — Andrew Jackson
19. “Our government is founded upon the intelligence of the people. I, for one, do not despair of the republic. I have great confidence in the virtue of the great majority of the people, and I cannot fear the result.” — Andrew Jackson
20. “Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions.” — Andrew Jackson
21. “In a free government, the demand for moral qualities should be made superior to that of talents.” — Andrew Jackson
22. “People are my religion because I believe in them.” — Andrew Jackson
23. “John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation I will secede your head from the rest of your body.” — Andrew Jackson
24. “Fear not. The people may be deluded for a moment, but cannot be corrupted.” — Andrew Jackson
25. “If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning.” — Andrew Jackson
26. “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 is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.” — Andrew Jackson
27. “Oh, do not cry. Be good children and we will all meet in heaven.” — Andrew Jackson
28. “It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the Indian tribes, within our limits, a just and liberal policy; and to give that humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which is consistent with the habits of our government and the feelings of our people.” — Andrew Jackson
29. “One man with courage makes a majority.” — Andrew Jackson
30. “To the victors belong the spoils.” — Andrew Jackson
31. “Never for a moment believe that the great body of the citizens of any state or states can deliberately intend to do wrong. They may, under the influence of temporary excitement or misguided opinions, commit mistakes; they may be misled for a time by the suggestions of self-interest; but in a community so enlightened and patriotic as the people of the United States, argument will soon make them sensible of their errors, and when convinced they will be ready to repair them.” — Andrew Jackson
32. “I carried $when I went to Washington. I returned with barely $in our pockets.” — Andrew Jackson
33. “I am a Senator against my wishes and feelings, which I regret more than any other of my life.” — Andrew Jackson
34. “This barbershop being dedicated to a Black American soldier also represents something very positive for the community. And I believe in the flag, even if the country doesn’t live up to it.” — Andrew Jackson
35. “My political enemies I can freely forgive; but as for who abused me when I was serving my country in the field, and those who attacked me for serving my country—Doctor, that is a different case.” — Andrew Jackson
36. “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 a friend to her foe.” — Andrew Jackson
37. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
38. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
39. “There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses.” — Andrew Jackson
40. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
41. “We are beginning a new era in our government. I cannot too strongly urge the necessity of a rigid economy and an inflexible determination not to enlarge the income beyond the real necessities of the government.” — Andrew Jackson
42. “The great can protect themselves, but the poor and humble require the arm and shield of the law.” — Andrew Jackson
43. “Disunion by force is treason.” — Andrew Jackson
44. “You are uneasy; you never sailed with me before, I see.” — Andrew Jackson
45. “After eight years as President, I have only two regrets—that I have not shot Henry Clay or hanged John C. Calhoun.” — Andrew Jackson
46. “The people are the government, administering it by their agents; they are the government—the sovereign power.” — Andrew Jackson
47. “Elevate those guns a little lower.” — Andrew Jackson
48. “Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” — Andrew Jackson
49. “Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government, are of high importance.” — Andrew Jackson
50. “Temporize not! It is always injurious.” — Andrew Jackson
51. “Thomas Paine needs no monument made with hands; he has erected a monument in the hearts of all lovers of liberty.” — Andrew Jackson
52. “When death comes, he respects neither age nor merit. He sweeps from the earthly existence the sick and the strong, the rich and the poor, and should teach us to live to be prepared for death.” — Andrew Jackson
53. “Being satisfied from observation and experience, as well as from medical testimony, that ardent spirit as a drink is not only needless but hurtful; and that the entire disuse of it would tend to promote the health, the virtue, and the happiness of the community, we hereby express our convention that should the citizens of the United States, and especially all young men, discontinue entirely the use of it, they would not only promote their own personal benefit, but the good of our country and the world.” — Andrew Jackson
54. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
55. “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 person and property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending.” — Andrew Jackson
56. “Americans are not a perfect people, but we are called to a perfect mission.” — Andrew Jackson
57. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
58. “The hydra of corruption is only scotched, not dead. An investigation kills it and its supporters dead. Let this be had.” — Andrew Jackson
59. “Every diminution of the public burdens arising from taxation gives to individual enterprise increased power, and furnishes to all the members of our happy confederacy new motives for patriotic affection and support.” — Andrew Jackson
60. “There is no pleasure in having nothing to do.” — Andrew Jackson
61. “This spirit of mob-law is becoming as great an evil as a servile war.” — Andrew Jackson
62. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
63. “I have always been afraid of banks.” — Andrew Jackson
64. “The Bible is the rock on which this Republic rests.” — Andrew Jackson
65. “I was born for the storm, and a calm does not suit me.” — Andrew Jackson
66. “But you must remember, my fellow citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty.” — Andrew Jackson
67. “Live within your means, never be in debt; and by husbanding your money, you can always lay it out well.” — Andrew Jackson
68. “It is a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.” — Andrew Jackson
69. “The duty of the government is to leave commerce to its own capital and credit, as well as all other branches of business, protecting all in their legal pursuits, granting exclusive privileges to none.” — Andrew Jackson
70. “Perpetuity is stamped upon the Constitution by the blood of our fathers.” — Andrew Jackson
71. “I cannot consent that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for an Emperor or a King; my republican feelings and principles forbid it; the simplicity of our system of government forbids it.” — Andrew Jackson
72. “What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic—studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry executes.” — Andrew Jackson
73. “War is a blessing compared with national degradation.” — Andrew Jackson
74. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
75. “Fun is having lots to do and not doing it.” — Andrew Jackson
76. “Too much praise cannot be bestowed on those who managed my artillery.” — Andrew Jackson
77. “Peace, above all things, is to be desired; but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.” — Andrew Jackson
78. “I find virtue to be found amongst the farmers of the country alone, not about courts, where courtiers dwell.” — Andrew Jackson
79. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
80. “There are only two things I can’t give up—one is coffee and the other is tobacco.” — Andrew Jackson
81. “The brave man inattentive to his duty is worth little more to his country than the coward who deserts in the hour of danger.” — Andrew Jackson
82. “You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out.” — Andrew Jackson
83. “We must regain Texas, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.” — Andrew Jackson
84. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
85. “Men do not get up and do mischief, without there being someone in the head of it.” — Andrew Jackson
86. “It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.” — Andrew Jackson
87. “The Constitution and the laws are supreme, and the Union indissoluble.” — Andrew Jackson
88. “The mischief springs from the power which the monied interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control—from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges which they have succeeded in obtaining. And unless you become more watchful in your states and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges, you will in the end find that the most important powers of government have been given or bartered away.” — Andrew Jackson
89. “Give me a thousand Tennesseans, and I’ll whip any other thousand men on the globe!” — Andrew Jackson
90. “If the Union is once severed, the line of separation will grow wider and wider, and the controversies which are now debated and settled in the halls of legislation will then be tried in fields of battle and determined by the sword.” — Andrew Jackson
91. “You must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.” — Andrew Jackson
92. “I would sincerely regret, and which never shall happen whilst I am in office, a military guard around the President.” — Andrew Jackson
93. “Money is power, and in that government which pays all the public officers of the states will all political power be substantially concentrated.” — Andrew Jackson
94. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
95. “Heaven will be heaven only if my wife is there.” — Andrew Jackson
96. “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 danger from abroad. It is from within, among yourselves—from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst for power.” — Andrew Jackson
97. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
98. “I have never in my life seen a Kentuckian who didn’t have a gun, a pack of cards, and a jug of whiskey.” — Andrew Jackson
99. “I hope and trust to meet you in Heaven, both white and black.” — Andrew Jackson
100. “Desperate courage makes One a majority.” — Andrew Jackson
101. “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.” — Andrew Jackson
102. “If Congress has the right under the constitution to issue paper money, it was given to them to be used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations.” — Andrew Jackson
