Constitution Quotes - Page 14

• If we're picking people to draw out of their own conscience and experience a 'new' Constitution, we should not look principally for good lawyers. We should look to people who agree with us. When we are in that mode, you realize we have rendered the Constitution useless.

  Antonin Scalia

  People, Looks, Useless

  "Scalia Slams 'Living Constitution' Theory", www.foxnews.com. March 14, 2005.

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• [T]he powers granted by the proposed Constitution are the gift of the people, and may be resumed by them when perverted to their oppression, and every power not granted thereby remains with the people.

  James Madison

  People, May, Oppression

  James Madison (1904). “The Writings of James Madison: 1787-1790”

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• The constitution is an instrument, above all, for LIMITING the functions of government.

  Barry Goldwater

  Government, Function, Instruments

  Barry Goldwater (2010). “The Conscience of a Conservative”, p.14, Bottom of the Hill

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• The Constitution limits the role of government. The Constitution enumerates the freedoms of the people and enforces those freedoms against government, making sure government cannot encroach.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Government, People, Roles

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• I don't know whither we are drifting, but I do know where every real thinking patriot will stand in the end, and that's by the Constitution.

  William Howard Taft

  Real, Thinking, Patriotism

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• We must educate ourselves and others about our precious civil liberties to ensure that we never accept demands that we give up our Constitution so that the government can pretend to protect us.

  Ron Paul

  Giving Up, Government, Liberty

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• You either believe in the Constitution, or you don't.

  Rand Paul

  Believe

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• If our free society is to endure, and I know it will, those who govern must recognize that the Framers of the Constitution limited their power in order to preserve human dignity and the air of freedom which is our proudest heritage.

  William J. Brennan

  Air, Order, Heritage

  "Reason and Passion: Justice Brennan's Enduring Influence". Book by Brennan Center for Justice, 1997.

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• No power over the freedom of religion [is] delegated to the United States by the Constitution.

  James Madison

  United States, Freedom Of Religion, States

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• We had so many different presidents, including Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln - there were other founders like Hamilton, Adams - who made it very clear that the courts can't make a law. The Constitution is expressly clear that that's a power reserved to Congress.

  Mike Huckabee

  Law, President, Different

  "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, abcnews.go.com. September 6, 2015.

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• I do not lift my voice against the great and glorious Government guaranteed to every citizen by the Constitution, but against those corrupt administrators who trample the Constitution and just laws under their feet.

  Brigham Young

  Government, Law, Voice

  Brigham Young (1858). “Journal of Discourses”, p.232

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• I'm a fighter. I am passionate about what I believe. I've been passionate my whole life about the American Constitution.

  Ted Cruz

  Believe, Passionate, Fighter

  "Look! Fusion writers and editors annotated the debate". GOP debate, fusion.kinja.com. October 28, 2015.

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• No matter what the Constitution says, it won't endure if the people don't closely read it and demand that it be followed.

  Oliver DeMille

  People, Demand, Matter

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• Ours is a representative republic with a Constitution in which is recognized the natural law and the natural rights of man. It is a republic with a spiritual foundation characterized by freedom - freedom for the individual and for his society.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Spiritual, Men, Rights

  Ezra Taft Benson (1969). “An enemy hath done this”

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• The fundamental principle of our constitution ... enjoins the sense of command, duty that the will of the majority shall prevail.

  George Washington

  Majority, Principles, Fundamentals

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• I am the happiest person I've ever met. This is what Buddhist Yoga and a healthy dose of reading the Declaration of the Independence, The Constitution and the Federalist Papers and anything else I could get my hands on has given me.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhist, Yoga, Reading

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• As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor;-let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children's liberty.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Children, Father, Character

  Abraham Lincoln, Don Edward Fehrenbacher (1977). “Abraham Lincoln, a Documentary Portrait Through His Speeches and Writings”, p.39, Stanford University Press

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• The American Constitution is a written instrument full and complete in itself. No Court in America, no Congress, no President, can add a single word thereto, or take a single word threreto. It is a great national enactment done by the people, and can only be altered, amended, or added to by the people.

  Frederick Douglass

  America, People, President

  "The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?" by Frederick Douglass, March 26, 1860.

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• The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government.

  Ayn Rand

  Government, Liberty, Doe

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• The debate over judicial nominations is a debate over the judiciary itself. It is a debate over how much power unelected judges should have in our system of government, how much control judges should have over a written constitution that belongs to the people.

  Orrin Hatch

  Government, Should Have, Judging

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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• We're here to defend the rights that are enshrined to us by the Constitution, as Americans.

  Sam Rasoul

  "Sam Rasoul on Democracy, The Democratic Party and Identity". Interview with Amina Chaudary, www.theislamicmonthly.com. May 10, 2017.

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• Now I realize it's fashionable in some circles to believe that no one in government should encourage others to read the Bible. That we're told we'll violate the constitutional separation of church and state established by the Founding Fathers and the First Amendment. The First Amendment was not written to protect people and their laws from religious values. It was written to protect those values from government tyranny.

  Ronald Reagan

  Religious, Father, Believe

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• To every description of citizens, let praise be given. but let them persevere in their affectionate vigilance over that precious depository of American happiness, the Constitution of the United States. Let them cherish it, too, for the sake of those who, from every clime, are daily seeking a dwelling in our land.

  George Washington

  Land, Dwelling, United States

  United States. President, George Washington, United States (1825). “The speeches, addresses and messages, of the several presidents of the United States, at the openings of Congress and at their respective inaugurations: Also, the Declaration of independence, the Constitution of the United States, and Washington's farewell address to his fellow-citizens”, p.73

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• If it be said that the legislative body are themselves the constitutional judges of their own powers, and that the construction they put upon them is conclusive upon the other departments, it may be answered, that this cannot be the natural presumption, where it is not be collected from any particular provisions in the Constitution.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Judging, May, Body

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Quentin P. Taylor, John Jay (1998). “The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers”, p.145, Rowman & Littlefield

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• What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Freedom, Gun

  Letter toWilliam Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

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