45 Davy Crockett Quotes from the King of the Wild Frontier

These Davy Crockett quotes show the different sides of the historic frontiersmen.

Share your favorite in the comments below.

Davy Crockett has a long list of titles connected with him.

They include things like frontiersman, soldier, and politician.

The stories of him have made him out to be an American folk hero.

Some of the stories are real and others are speculation or completely fictitious.

Davy Crockett was a skilled woodsman and hunter in his younger life.

He went on to fight in the War of 1812 and in some other battles as well.

He eventually became a politician where he often stood against Andrew Jackson who was president at the time.

Don’t forget to also check out these Andrew Jackson quotes about politics, life and history.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement. 

Look through our complete collection of inspirational quotes here.

Inspirational Davy Crockett quotes and sayings

1. “Be sure you are right, then go ahead.” ― Davy Crockett

2. “Let your tongue speak what your heart thinks.” ― Davy Crockett

3. “I have acted fearless and independent and I never will regret my course.” ― Davy Crockett

You will also enjoy our article on The Karate Kid quotes.

4. “I don’t know of anything in my book to be criticized on by honorable men.” ― Davy Crockett

5. “Better to keep a good conscience with an empty purse, than to get a bad opinion of myself, with a full one.” ― Davy Crockett

6. “Fame is like a shaved pig with a greased tail, and it is only after it has slipped through the hands of some thousands, that some fellow, by mere chance, holds on to it!” ― Davy Crockett

7. “The enemy fought with savage fury, and met death with all its horrors, without shrinking or complaining: not one asked to be spared, but fought as long as they could stand or sit.” ― Davy Crockett

8. “For the information of young hunters, I will just say, in this place, that whenever a fellow gets bad lost, the way home is just the way he doesn’t think it is. This rule will hit nine times out of ten.” ― Davy Crockett

9. “I know not whether, in the eyes of the world, a brilliant death is not preferred to an obscure life of rectitude. Most men are remembered as they died, and not as they lived. We gaze with admiration upon the glories of the setting sun, yet scarcely bestow a passing glance upon its noonday splendor.” ― Davy Crockett

Welfare related Davy Crockett quotes

10. “I know, that obscure as I am, my name is making a considerable deal of fuss in the world.” ― Davy Crockett

11. “We must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living.” ― Davy Crockett

12. “You will find me standing up to my rack, as the people’s faithful representative, and the public’s most obedient, very humble servant.” ― Davy Crockett

13. “I am no man’s man. I bark at no man’s bid. I will never come and go, and fetch and carry, at the whistle of the great man in the white house, no matter who he is.” ― Davy Crockett

14. “Most of the authors seek fame, but I seek for justice – a holier impulse than ever entered into the ambitious struggles of the votaries of that fickle, flirting goddess.” ― Davy Crockett

15. “I have suffered myself to be politically sacrificed to save my country from ruin and disgrace and if I am never again elected I will have the gratification to know that I have done my duty.” ― Davy Crockett

16. “Whenever I had anything and saw a fellow being suffering, I was more anxious to relieve him than to benefit myself. And this is one of the true secrets of my being a poor man to this day.” ― Davy Crockett

17. “I want people to be able to get what they need to live: enough food, a place to live, and an education for their children. Government does not provide these as well as private charities and businesses.” ― Davy Crockett

18. “Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it.” ― Davy Crockett

19. “I gave my decisions on the principles of common justice and honesty between man and man, and relied on natural-born sense, and not on law, learning to guide me; for I had never read a page in a law book in all my life.” ― Davy Crockett

Davy Crockett quotes on politics

20. “I have always supported measures and principles and not men.” ― Davy Crockett

21. “I would rather be politically dead than hypocritically immortalized.” ― Davy Crockett

22. “The party in power, like Jonah’s gourd, grew up quickly, and will quickly fall.” ― Davy Crockett

23. “Congress allows lemonade to the members and has it charged under the head of stationery-I move also that whiskey be allowed under the item of fuel.” ― Davy Crockett

24. “I am at liberty to vote as my conscience and judgment dictates to be right, without the yoke of any party on me… Look at my arms, you will find no party hand-cuff on them.” ― Davy Crockett

25. “I voted against this Indian bill, and my conscience yet tells me that I gave a good, honest vote, and one that I believe will not make me ashamed in the day of judgment.” ― Davy Crockett

26. “We have the right as individuals to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity, but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.” ― Davy Crockett

27. “It is quite possible that someone is insane and they think they have a chance. Not insane in the clinical sense, but they may have such a strong political ambition that they blind themselves to reality.” ― Davy Crockett

28. “I would rather be beaten and be a man than to be elected and be a little puppy dog. I have always supported measures and principles and not men. I have acted fearless[ly] and independent and I never will regret my course. I would rather be politically buried than to be hypocritically immortalized.” ―Davy Crockett

29. “I now say that the oldest man living never heard of the president of a great nation to come down to open electioneering for his successor. It is treating the nation as if it was the property of a single individual, and he had the right to bequeath it to whom he pleased – the same as a patch of land for which he had the patent.” ― Davy Crockett

Davy Crockett texas quotes

30. “You can all go to heck; I will go to Texas.” ― Davy Crockett

31. “The whole book is my own, and every sentiment and sentence in it.” ― Davy Crockett

32. “Where the wild savage roves and the broad prairies spread, The fallen — despised — will again go ahead.” ― Davy Crockett

33. “But we have two big German shepherds in the backyard. If she’d been able to get to them, we wouldn’t be talking at the hospital now.” ― Davy Crockett

34. “Heaven knows that I have done all that a mortal could do, to save the people, and the failure was not my fault, but the fault of others.” ― Davy Crockett

35. “I must say as to what I have seen of Texas it is the garden spot of the world. The best land and the best prospects for health I ever saw, and I do believe it is a fortune to any man to come here. There is a world of country here to settle.” ― Davy Crockett

36. “I’m that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half-horse, half-alligator, a little touched with the snapping turtle; can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak of lightning, and slip without a scratch down a honey locust [tree].” ― Davy Crockett

37. “Sorrow, it is said, will make even an oyster feel poetical. I never tried my hand at that sort of writing but on this particular occasion such was my state of feeling, that I began to fancy myself inspired; so I took pen in hand, and as usual, I went ahead.” ― Davy Crockett

Best Davy Crockett quotes

38. “Throughout the day no time for memorandums now. Go ahead! Liberty and independence forever.” ― Davy Crockett

39. “If one man in the country could take all the money, what was the use of passing any bills about it?” ― Davy Crockett

40. “Although our great man at the head of the nation, has changed his course, I will not change mine.” ― Davy Crockett

41. “The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man.” ― Davy Crockett

42. “I am sorry to say I do doubt the honesty of many men that are called good at home, that have given themselves up to serve a party.” ― Davy Crockett

43. “A bulger of a place it is. The number of the ships beat me all hollow, and looked for all the world like a big clearing in the West, with the dead trees all standing.” ― Davy Crockett

44. “It was expected of me that I was to bow to the name of Andrew Jackson… even at the expense of my conscience and judgment. such a thing was new to me, and a total stranger to my principles.” ― Davy Crockett

45. “I know nothing, by experience, of party discipline. I would rather be a raccoon-dog, and belong to a Negro in the forest, than to belong to any party, further than to do justice to all, and to promote the interests of my country. The time will and must come when honesty will receive its reward, and when the people of this nation will be brought to a sense of their duty and will pause and reflect how much it cost us to redeem ourselves from the government of one man.” ― Davy Crockett

What did you learn from these Davy Crockett quotes?

Davy Crockett is often remembered as a woodsy-looking man with a coonskin cap-wearing frontier clothes and carrying a rifle.

This is the look made famous from the Disney movie Davy Crockett.

There were also other movies made about him and John Wayne even starred as him in a movie.

He is often remembered for his role in the Alamo.

During the Texas War for Independence, Crockett fought for Texas along with other volunteer soldiers.

Amazingly, they held out for nearly two weeks before they were overrun and killed by Mexican soldiers.

His actions in life paved the way for him to be remembered as an American hero of sorts.

What’s your biggest takeaway from these Davy Crockett quotes and sayings?

Do you have any other favorite quotes to add?

Let us know in the comment section below.