Sam Ervin Quotes

• There is nothing in the Constitution that authorizes or makes it the official duty of a president to have anything to do with criminal activities.

  Sam Ervin

  President, Criminals, Constitution

  58 Copy quote

• The President seems to extend executive privilege way out past the atmosphere. What he says is executive privilege is nothing but executive poppycock.

  Sam Ervin

  Past, Atmosphere, President

  49 Copy quote

• A leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people.

  Sam Ervin

  People, Leader, Helping

  40 Copy quote

• I believe in a wall between church and state so high that no one can climb over it. When religion controls government, political liberty dies; and when government controls religion, religious liberty perishes. Every American has the constitutional right not to be taxed or have his tax money expended for the establishment of religion. For too long the issue of government aid to church related organizations has been a divisive force in our society and in the Congress. It has erected communication barriers among our religions and fostered intolerance.

  Sam Ervin

  Religious, Wall, Believe

  48 Copy quote

• Recalling an old magistrate's words to a young attorney, The rain it raineth on the just And also on the unjust fella; But chiefly on the just, because The unjust steals the just's umbrella.

  Sam Ervin

  Rain, Unjust, Injustice

  35 Copy quote

• A judicial activist is a judge who interprets the Constitution to mean what it would have said if he, instead of the Founding Fathers, had written it.

  Sam Ervin

  Father, Mean, Judging

  Sam J. Ervin Jr. (2014). “Humor of a Country Lawyer”, p.38, UNC Press Books

  18 Copy quote

• If religious freedom is to endure in America, the responsibility for teaching religion to public school children must be left to the homes and churches of our land, where this responsibility rightfully belongs. It must not be assumed by the government through the agency of the public school system.

  Sam Ervin

  Religious, Children, Teaching

  35 Copy quote

• Divine right went out with the American Revolution and doesn't belong to the White House aides. What meat do they eat that makes them grow so great?

  Sam Ervin

  White, Divine Right, House

  28 Copy quote

• I've always been worried about people who are willing to work for nothing. Sometimes that's all you get from them, nothing.

  Sam Ervin

  Business, People, Sometimes

  26 Copy quote

• When religion controls government, political liberty dies; and when government controls religion, religious liberty perishes.

  Sam Ervin

  Religious, Government, Political

  26 Copy quote

• Religious faith is not a storm cellar to which men and women
  can flee for refuge from the storms of life. It is instead, an
  inner spiritual strength which enables them to face those
  storms with hope and serenity.

  Sam Ervin

  Spiritual, Religious, Angel

  Sam J. Ervin Jr. (2014). “Humor of a Country Lawyer”, p.88, UNC Press Books

  20 Copy quote

• I believe in a wall between church and state so high that no one can climb over it.

  Sam Ervin

  Wall, Believe, Church

  20 Copy quote

• I used to think that the Civil War was our country's greatest tragedy, but I do remember that there were some redeeming features in the Civil War in that there was some spirit of sacrifice and heroism displayed on both sides. I see no redeeming features in Watergate.

  Sam Ervin

  Country, War, Sacrifice

  14 Copy quote

• Humor makes our heavy burdens light and smoothes the rough spots in our pathways.

  Sam Ervin

  Light, Pathways, Burden

  13 Copy quote

• Political freedom cannot exist in any land where religion controls the state, and religious freedom cannot exist in any land where the state controls religion.

  Sam Ervin

  Religious, Land, Political

  17 Copy quote

• A school prayer amendment would confer upon public school boards a power the First Amendment now denies to Congress and the states, that is, the power to establish religion.

  Sam Ervin

  Prayer, School, Atheism

  9 Copy quote

• The Supreme Court has made God unconstitutional.

  Sam Ervin

  Scary, Made, Court

  13 Copy quote

• What James Madison and the other men of his generation had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment was that there should be no official relationship of any character between government and any church or many churches, and no levying of taxes for the support of any church, or many churches, or all churches, or any institution conducted by any of them.

  Sam Ervin

  Character, Men, Support

  16 Copy quote

• Polygraph tests are 20th-century witchcraft.

  Sam Ervin

  Science, Tests, Century

  9 Copy quote

• Government is contemptuous of true religion when it confiscates the taxes of Caesar to finance the things of God.

  Sam Ervin

  Government, Atheism, Finance

  12 Copy quote

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