Martin Van Buren Quotes & Sayings

“As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it.”

“There is a power in public opinion in this country - and I thank God for it: for it is the most honest and best of all powers - which will not tolerate an incompetent or unworthy man to hold in his weak or wicked hands the lives and fortunes of his fellow-citizens.”

“I tread in the footsteps of illustrious men... in receiving from the people the sacred trust confided to my illustrious predecessor.”

“The people under our system, like the king in a monarchy, never dies.”

“No evil can result from its inhibition more pernicious than its toleration.”

“The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.”

“The government should not be guided by Temporary Excitement, but by Sober Second Thought.”

“Those who have wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs; but always by exciting the multitude. The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only secondary results, the second is the resort of genius and transforms the universe.”

“It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the Mississippi.”

“Our country presents on every side the evidences of that continued favor under whose auspices it, has gradually risen from a few feeble and dependent colonies to a prosperous and powerful confederacy.”