Constitution Quotes - Page 24

• In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood; binding up the constitution of our country with our dearest domestic ties; adopting our fundamental laws into the bosom of our family affections; keeping inseparable and cherishing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually reflected charities, our state, our hearths, our sepulchres, and our altars.

  Edmund Burke

  Country, War, Blood

  Edmund Burke (1790). “Reflections on the Revolution in France: And on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. In a Letter Intended to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris”, p.49

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• I think this president has so badly abused his power, breached his trust in remarkable ways with our Congress, with the American people, has violated so many of our international treaty obligations, our Constitution, our domestic statutory laws, and has been responsible for ordering and condoning heinous human rights violations. We need to draw the line.

  Rocky Anderson

  Thinking, Rights, Law

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• The bigotry is so virulent that it may be time to make Christians a protected class. Right now 'Christo-phobia' and 'Biblo-phobia' are at such a fever pitch among leftists and homosexual activists, and they need to be stopped before they get carried away in their zeal and do bodily harm to someone. Once again we must remind them our Constitution says, 'freedom of religion' and not 'freedom from religion.'

  E.W. Jackson

  Christian, Class, Needs

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• U.S. Constitution declares rather unambiguously that Congress has the responsibility to “declare war.

  Marvin Kalb

  War, Responsibility, Congress

  Marvin Kalb (2013). “The Road to War: Presidential Commitments Honored and Betrayed”, p.1904, Brookings Institution Press

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• It seems incredible that the trustees of typically American fortune-created foundations should have permitted them to be used to finance ideas and practices incompatible with the fundamental concepts of our Constitution. Yet there seems evidence that this may have occurred.

  Norman Dodd

  Should Have, Practice, Ideas

  United States. Congress. House. Special Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations, Norman Dodd (1954). “A report from Norman Dodd, director of research, covering his direction of the staff of the Special Committee of the House of Representatives to Investigate Tax Exempt Foundations for the six months' period, November 1, 1953-April 30, 1954”

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• So long as the Constitution is not amended beyond recognition, so long as elections are held regularly and fairly and the ethos of secularism broadly prevails, so long as citizens can speak and write in the language of their choosing, so long as there is an integrated market and a moderately efficient civil service and army, and — lest I forget — so long as Hindi films are watched and their songs sung, India will survive

  Ramachandra Guha

  Song, Writing, Army

  Ramachandra Guha (2011). “India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy”, Pan Macmillan

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• In my commencement address I gave the language and sources of the prophetic utterance made by the Prophet Joseph that the Constitution of the United States would hang by a single thread, but be saved by the elders of Israel. I hope you will read those sources so you will be well-informed as to this prophecy and be prepared to do your part in its fulfillment.

  Ernest L. Wilkinson

  Israel, United States, Utterance

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• We were born with natural rights. We don't need civil rights. [African-Americans] don't need civil rights. They don't need them. They have inalienable rights granted by God in the Constitution. I mean, I'm discriminated against all the time. I don't care. It doesn't bother me. [I'm discriminated against] because I'm old. I'm too old to get a job as a game show host. They say, well, the guy's 71 and in five years he'll be 76. And I'm a one per center, and I'm absolutely discriminated against as a one per center.

  Chuck Woolery

  Jobs, Mean, Rights

  "Michele Bachmann At CPAC: Former GOP Candidate Slams Prop 8 Ruling, Meets Chuck Woolery" by Michelangelo Signorile, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 10, 2012.

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• As Americans, we can take enormous pride in the fact that courage has been inspired by our own struggle for freedom, by the tradition of democratic law secured by our forefathers and enshrined in our Constitution. It is a tradition that says all men are created equal under the law and that no one is above it.

  Barack Obama

  Struggle, Pride, Men

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• If you want to understand your government, don't begin by reading the Constitution. (It conveys precious little of the flavor of today's statecraft.) Instead, read selected portions of the Washington telephone directory containing listings for all the organizations with titles beginning with the word National.

  George Will

  Reading, Organization, Government

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• Think of all that hard work our founding fathers put in - the revolutionizing, the three-fifths compromising, having to write the entire Constitution with a quill - and yet they neglected to include the right to vote.

  Mo Rocca

  Father, Hard Work, Writing

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• Did you hear that we're writing Iraq's new Constitution?
  Why not just give them ours? We're not using it anymore.

  Jay Leno

  Writing, Usa, Iraq

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• The last time I checked, the Constitution said, 'of the people, by the people and for the people.' That's what the Declaration of Independence says.

  William J. Clinton

  Stupid, Humorous, People

  William J. "Bill" Clinton's campaign speech in California, quoted in Investor's Business Daily, October 25, 1996.

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• No treaty or international agreement can contravene the Constitution.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Agreement, Treaties, International

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• I think that [Obama] is a powerful leader. I think he’s a brilliant man. I think that he has an incredible devotion to our constitution, and that he is now able to flower more as the president I knew he could be.

  Ashley Judd

  Powerful, Flower, Men

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• I take my marching orders from the Constitution.

  Ron Paul

  Order

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• It’s not part of our Constitution to assume that we are the world’s policemen.

  Ron Paul

  World, Assuming, Policemen

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• The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders’ political views were strongly informed by their religious beliefs.

  Ron Paul

  Religious, Father, Writing

  "The War on Religion" by Ron Paul, www.lewrockwell.com. December 30, 2003.

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• When conservative judges strike down laws, it's because of what's in the Constitution. When liberal judges strike down laws (or impose new laws), it's because of what's in the New York Times

  Ann Coulter

  New York, Law, Judging

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• Now that they've finished reading the Constitution out loud, the Teabaggers must call out that group of elitist liberals whose values are so antithetical to theirs. I'm talking of course about the Founding Fathers, who the Teabaggers believe are just like them, but aren't. One is a group of exclusively white men who live in a bygone century, have bad teeth, and think of blacks as 3/5 of a person, and the other are the Founding Fathers.

  Bill Maher

  Father, Believe, Reading

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• Today's decision affirms what we all know to be true — the U.S. Constitution guarantees the basic civil rights of all Americans, not just some. Utah's ban on marriage equality does nothing to strengthen or protect any marriage. Instead, it singles out thousands of loving Utah families for unfair treatment simply because of who they are. Our Constitution does not allow for such blatant discrimination.

  Chad Griffin

  Utah, Rights, Decision

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• I am with the South in life or death, in victory or defeat. I believe the North is about to wage a brutal and unholy war on a people who have done them no wrong, in violation of the Constitution and the fundamental principles of government. They no longer acknowledge that all government derives its validity from the consent of the governed. They are about to invade our peaceful homes, destroy our property, and murder our men and dishonor our women. We propose no invasion of the North, no attack on them, and only ask to be left alone.

  Patrick Cleburne

  War, Believe, Home

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• Our constitution mentions religion just twice, and both times the word 'no' are attached.

  Ellery Schempp

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• In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well as white men - would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness... America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Fall, Men, Pursuit Of Happiness

  I Have a Dream, delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

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• A privilege may not be a right, but, under the constitution of the country, I do not gather that any broad distinction is drawn between the rights and the privileges that were enjoyed and that were taken away.

  Charles Tupper

  Country, Taken, Rights

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