Constitution Quotes - Page 10

• We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.

  James Madison

  Bible, God, Religious

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• I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.

  George Washington

  Honesty, Affair, Policy

  George Washington (1810). “Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States”, p.16

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• Can any of you seriously say the Bill of Rights could get through Congress today? It wouldn't even get out of committee.

  F. Lee Bailey

  Government, Usa, Rights

  "Newsweek" Magazine, April 17, 1967.

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• My excellent colleagues have forgotten these bitter lessons of history. The prospect of tyranny may not grab the headlines the way vivid stories of gun crime usually do. But few saw the Third Reich coming until it was too late. The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed only for those exceptionally rare circumstances when all other rights have failed. A free people can only afford to make this mistake once.

  Alex Kozinski

  Freedom, Mistake, Failure

  "United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit". openjurist.org. May 6, 2003.

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• There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters

  Daniel Webster

  Mean, Men, Gun

  Daniel Webster, James Rees (1839). “The beauties of the Hon. Daniel Webster: selected and arranged, with a critical essay on his genius and writings”, p.30

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• Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.

  Joseph Story

  Wise, Fall, Order

  Joseph Story (1834). “The Constitutional Class Book: Being a Brief Exposition of the Constitution of the United States: Designed for the Use of the Higher Classes in Common Schools”, p.154

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• The public welfare demands that constitutional cases must be decided according to the terms of the Constitution itself, and not according to judges views of fairness, reasonableness, or justice. I have no fear of constitutional amendments properly adopted, but I do fear the rewriting of the Constitution by judges under the guise of interpretation.

  Hugo Black

  Views, Justice, Judging

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• The British Constitution has always been puzzling and always will be.

  Queen Elizabeth II

  Political, Politics, British

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• I hope that you have re-read the Constitution of the United States in these past few weeks. Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Past, United States, Week

  Franklin D. Roosevelt (2008). “Fireside chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: radio addresses to the American people about the Depression, the New Deal, and the Second World War, 1933-1944”, Red & Black Pub

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• An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.

  Thomas Jefferson

  4th Of July, Government, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

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• When all government ...in little as in great things... shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power; it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Truth, Knowledge

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.216

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• The framers of our Constitution meant we were to have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

  Billy Graham

  Patriotic, America, Freedom Of Religion

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• The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws.

  Noah Webster

  Law, Scripture, Principles

  Noah Webster (1832). “History of the United States: To which is Prefixed a Brief Historical Account of Our [English] Ancestors, from the Dispersion at Babel, to Their Migration to America, and of the Conquest of South America, by the Spaniards”, p.339

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• The Constitution of the United States was created by the people of the United States composing the respective states, who alone had the right.

  James Madison

  Patriotic, America, People

  James Madison (1859). “Selections from the Private Correspondence of James Madison, from 1813 to 1836”, p.119

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• The Constitution, when it says, "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America," meant just what it said without reference to color or condition, ad infinitum.

  Joseph Smith, Jr.

  Freedom, Blessing, Order

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• Hence we say, that the Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner; it is to all those who are privileged with the sweets of liberty, like the cooling shades and refreshing waters of a great rock in a thirsty and weary land. It is like a great tree under whose branches men from every clime can be shielded from the burning rays of the sun.

  Joseph Smith, Jr.

  Sweet, Freedom, Men

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• The preservation of a free government requires not merely that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people. The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority and are Tyrants. The people who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.

  James Madison

  Rights, Government, Law

  James Madison (1867). “1769-1793”, p.163

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• No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.

  Joseph Story

  Men, Doubt, President

  Joseph Story (1833). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.339

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• Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.

  James Madison

  Religious, Atheist, Ignorance

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• If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one.

  James Madison

  Government, Done, Socialism

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.31, University of Virginia Press

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• A strong body makes the mind strong.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Strong, Exercise, Gun

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States”, p.287

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• The Constitution guarantees us our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's all. It doesn't guarantee our rights to charity.

  Jesse Ventura

  Life, Pursuit Of Happiness, Rights

  Jesse Ventura (2000). “I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic from the Bottom Up”, p.17, Villard

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• Let it be borne on the flag under which we rally in every exigency, that we have one country, one constitution, one destiny.

  Daniel Webster

  Country, Destiny, America

  Speech at Niblo's Saloon, New York, N.Y., 15 Mar. 1837

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• Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Liberty, Obliged

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798”, p.474, Cosimo, Inc.

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• There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all.

  Antonin Scalia

  Freedom, Order, Political

  "Opinion By Scalia Opposes Broad View Of Police Power" by Stuart Taylor Jr., www.nytimes.com. March 4, 1987.

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