Constitution Quotes - Page 18

• All authority belongs to the people... In questions of power let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief with chains of the Constitution.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, People, Liberty

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• The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the states are independent as to everything within themselves and united as to everything respecting foreign nations. Let the general government be reduced to foreign concerns only.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Independent, Government, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. IX (in 12 Volumes)”, p.140, Cosimo, Inc.

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• It is for the good of nations, and not for the emolument or aggrandizement of particular individuals, that government ought to be established, and that mankind are at the expense of supporting it. The defects of every government and constitution both as to principle and form, must, on a parity of reasoning, be as open to discussion as the defects of a law, and it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out.

  Thomas Paine

  Men, Law, Liberty

  Thomas Paine, Bruce Kuklick (2000). “Paine: Political Writings”, p.160, Cambridge University Press

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• A terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event [will occur] somewhere in the Western world - it may be in the United States of America - that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event.

  Tommy Franks

  Country, Order, America

  "General Tommy Franks". Interview by Marvin R. Shanken, www.cigaraficionado.com. December 2003.

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• At Rest An American Soldier And Defender of the Constitution.

  Jefferson Davis

  Tombstone, Soldier, Defenders

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• What does the Negro want? His answer is very simple. He wants only what all other Americans want. He wants opportunity to make real what the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights say, what the Four Freedoms establish. While he knows these ideals are open to no man completely, he wants only his equal chance to obtain them.

  Mary McLeod Bethune

  Real, Opportunity, Simple

  Mary McLeod Bethune, Audrey Thomas McCluskey, Elaine M. Smith (2001). “Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World : Essays and Selected Documents”, p.23, Indiana University Press

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• No higher duty, or more solemn responsibility, rests upon this Court than that of translating into living law and maintaining this constitutional shield deliberately planned and inscribed for the benefit of every human being subject to our Constitution - of whatever race, creed or persuasion.

  Hugo Black

  Life, Responsibility, Race

  "Chambers v. Florida, 309 U.S. 227". Writing for the court, 1940.

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• With typical arrogance, the Anglos claimed to cherish freedom of speech but failed to recognize this right for anyone but themselves. Where did the Constitution say anything about English?

  James Crawford

  Justice, Diversity, Freedom Of Speech

  James Crawford (1992). “Hold Your Tongue: Bilingualism and the Politics of English Only”, Addison Wesley Publishing Company

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• I would have the Constitution torn in shreds and scattered to the four winds of heaven. Let us destroy the Constitution and build on its ruins the temple of liberty. I have brothers in slavery. I have seen chains placed on their limbs and beheld them captive.

  William Wells Brown

  Brother, Wind, Justice

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• It will be the duty of the Executive, with sufficient appropriations for the purpose, to prosecute unsparingly all who have been engaged in depriving citizens of the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution.

  Rutherford B. Hayes

  Patriotic, Rights, Citizens

  Fourth State of the Union Address, en.wikisource.org. December 06, 1880.

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• No law can give Congress a backbone if it refuses to stand off as the coequal branch the Constitution made it.

  Trey Gowdy

  Bad Ass, Law, Giving

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• I taught the Constitution for ten years, I believe in the Constitution.

  Trey Gowdy

  Believe, Bad Ass, Years

  "Fournier defends linking ObamaCare to Katrina and Iraq". "The Kelly File" with Megyn Kelly, www.foxnews.com. November 20, 2013.

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• The same Constitution that allows her the right, if she wants to, to sit there and say nothing, allows these groups the right to petition their government for redress.

  Trey Gowdy

  Badass, Bad Ass, Government

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• Slavery may, perhaps, be best compared to the infantile disease of measles; a complaint which so commonly attacks the young of humanity in their infancy, and when gone through at that period leaves behind it so few fatal marks; but which when it normally attacks the fully developed adult becomes one of the most virulent and toxic of diseases, often permanently poisoning the constitution where it does not end in death.

  Olive Schreiner

  Humanity, Gone, Slavery

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• An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave in not "distinctly and expressly affirmed" in it.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Slavery, Inspection, Shows

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• The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it.

  James Madison

  Peace, War, Government

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.43, University of Virginia Press

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• A Garden, an Elaboratory, a Work - house, Improvements and Breeding, are pleasant and Profitable Diversions to the Idle and Ingenious: For here they miss Ill Company, and converse with Nature and Art; whose Variety are equally grateful and instructing; and preserve a good Constitution of Body and Mind.

  William Penn

  Art, Work, Grateful

  William Penn (1782). “The Select Works of William Penn....”, p.127

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• There is nothing capricious in nature and the implanting of a desire indicates that its gratification is in the constitution of the creature that feel it.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Life, Nature

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• A mob is a society obodies, voluntarily bereaving themselves oreason, and traversing its work. The mob is man, voluntarily descending to the nature othe beast. Its fit hour oactivity is night; its actions are insane, like its whole constitution.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Night, Men, Insane

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• I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as satisfied that it is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament.

  Benjamin Rush

  Inspiration, Believe, Patriotic

  Benjamin Rush (1951). “Letters”

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• Such is the constitution of the human mind, that any kind of knowledge, if it be really such, is its own reward.

  John Henry Newman

  Knowledge, Mind, Rewards

  John Henry Newman (1873). “The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated: I. In Nine Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin ; [II] In Occasional Lectures and Essays Addressed to the Members of the Catholic University”, p.103

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• The Bible and its teachings helped form the basis for the Founding Fathers' abiding belief in the inalienable rights of the individual, rights which they found implicit in the Bible's teachings of the inherent worth and dignity of each individual. This same sense of man patterned the convictions of those who framed the English system of law inherited by our own Nation, as well as the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

  Ronald Reagan

  Bible, God, Religious

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan)., Ronald Reagan, United States. Office of the Federal Register (1982). “Ronald Reagan”

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• I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Exercise, Government

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.36, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• [N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

  James Madison

  Religious, Atheist, Faith Religion

  James Madison (1836). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”, p.204

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• I wouldn't pick a judge who said that the Pledge of Allegiance couldn't be said in a school because it had the words 'under God'' in it. I think that's an example of a judge allowing personal opinion to enter into the decision-making process, as opposed to strict interpretation of the Constitution.

  George W. Bush

  Faith, School, Thinking

  Presidential candidate debate in St. Louis, Missouri, www.cnn.com. October 9, 2004.

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