Confederation Quotes

• This world of ours... must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Respect, Fear, Hate

  Farewell Address, delivered 17 January 1961

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• Confederation is only yet in the gristle, and it will require five years more before it hardens into bone.

  John A. Macdonald

  Years, Bones, Five

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• I think in Atlantic Canada, because of what happened in the decades following Confederation, there is a culture of defeat that we have to overcome.

  Stephen Harper

  Thinking, Overcoming, Culture

  "New Brunswick Telegraph Journal", May 29, 2002.

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• Confederation is a compact, made originally by four provinces but adhered to by all the nine provinces who have entered it, and I submit to the judgment of this house and to the best consideration of its members, that this compact should not be lightly altered.

  Wilfrid Laurier

  House, Four, Nine

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• All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.

  John Adams

  Nature, Money, Ignorance

  John Adams' Letter to Thomas Jefferson, founders.archives.gov. August 23, 1787.

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• The power of the people pervading the proposed system, together with the strong confederation of the states, will form an adequate security against every danger that has been apprehended.

  John Dickinson

  Strong, Power, Usa

  John Dickinson (1801). “The Political Writings of John Dickinson, Esquire: Late President of the State of Delaware, and of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”, p.89

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• I fear a permanent Confederation will never be settled; tho the most material articles are I think got thro', so as to give great offence to some, but to my Satisfaction.

  William Whipple

  Giving Up, Thinking, Satisfaction

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• When the Canadian confederation took place in 1867, a lot of people in Quebec said, 'Could we have a referendum?' They said, 'Oh, no. In the British tradition, the Parliament can do anything, excluding changing a man into a woman, and, therefore, no referendum' - and that was that.

  Jacques Parizeau

  Men, People, Tradition

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• My political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious solicitude for the public welfare, leads me to ask who authorized them (the framers of the Constitution) to speak the language of 'We, the People,' instead of 'We, the States'?

  Patrick Henry

  People, Political, Curiosity

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• Slavery existed before the formation of this Union. It derived from the Constitution that recognition which it would not have enjoyed without the confederation. If the States had not united together, there would have been no obligation on adjoining States to regard any species of property unknown to themselves.

  Jefferson Davis

  Together, Slavery, Unions

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• The father of confederation is deadlock.

  Goldwin Smith

  Father

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• To suggest that Quebecers willingly give up the chance to exercise fully their influence within the federal government would be to betray the historical role Quebec has always played in Confederation, and to undermine the legitimacy of their pride and ambitions.

  Kim Campbell

  Giving Up, Betrayal, Ambition

  Address at Progressive Conservative Brunch in Montreal, Quebec, www.canadahistory.com. August 22, 1993.

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• Jealousy, and local policy mix too much in all our public councils for the good government of the Union. In a words, the confederation appears to me to be little more than a shadow without the substance . . . .

  George Washington

  Government, Shadow, Substance

  George Washington, David Maydole Matteson, United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission (1931). “The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799”

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• Canada is seen to some as a confederation of shopping centres.

  Pierre Trudeau

  Shopping, Canada, Centre

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• As in forming a political society, each individual contributes some of his rights, in order that he may, from a common stock of rights, derive greater benefits, than he could from merely his own; so, in forming a confederation, each political society should contribute such a share of their rights, as will, from a common stock of these rights, produce the largest quantity of benefits for them.

  John Dickinson

  Rights, Order, Political

  John Dickinson (1801). “The Political Writings of John Dickinson, Esquire: Late President of the State of Delaware, and of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”, p.90

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• The Gold Cup really is about getting the job done and winning it and qualifying us for the Confederations Cup in Russia in 2017. That's why it's really crucial for us to have players on the roster that have tremendous experience.

  Jurgen Klinsmann

  Jobs, Winning, Player

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• Clearly, if Confederation is to survive another 100 years, Canada must find a national esprit de corps. Cohesion cannot depend indefinitely on hating Toronto.

  Eric Nicol

  Hate, Years, Toronto

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• Can we expect the redemption of the world from scholars? I doubt it. But the time has come for all artists to join together as a confederation in an eternal league.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Artist, League, Doubt

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• I have the highest veneration of those Gentleman, -- but, Sir, give me leave to demand, what right had they to say, We, the People? My political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious solicitude for the public welfare, leads me to ask who authorized them to speak the language of, We, the People, instead of We, the States? States are the characteristics, and the soul of the confederation. If the States be not the agents of this compact, it must be one of great consolidated National Government of the people of all the States.

  Patrick Henry

  Government, Giving, People

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• If Yugoslavia is to exist, it can exist only as an alliance, a confederation of independent states.

  Franjo Tuđman

  Independent, Yugoslavia, Alliances

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• At the World Cup and even now at the Confederations Cup, our security provisions will ensure the greatest level of protection possible for all those participating - both inside and outside the stadiums.

  Franz Beckenbauer

  World, Levels, Cups

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• I am for world-control of production and of trade and transport, for a world coinage, and the confederation of mankind. I am for the super-State.

  H. G. Wells

  World, States, Mankind

  H. G. Wells (2016). “A Year of Prophesying”, p.70, Read Books Ltd

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• [M]y wish is, that the Convention may adopt no temporizing expedient, but probe the defects of the Constitution [i.e., the Articles of Confederation] to the bottom, and provide radical cures.

  George Washington

  Wish, May, Constitution

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• Well, what there ought to be is an international labor organization, a confederation of the trade unions of all the countries speaking for the workers who are competing with one another, and talking about the difference in wage levels between, say, Europe and Indonesia.

  Richard Rorty

  Country, Talking, Europe

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• I have a solution. I agree for the United Nations forces to be on the borders between me and them for any period of time. Okay? Ezer Weizman challenged me a few days ago to accept an Israeli - Palestinian confederation.

  Yasser Arafat

  Borders, Accepting, Force

  Source: www.nybooks.com

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