Constitution Quotes - Page 28

• For good nurture and education implant good constitutions.

  Plato

  Education, Nurture, Implants

  Plato, Julius A. Sigler (1997). “Education: Ends and Means”, p.11, University Press of America

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• From study of known normal brains we have learned that there is a certain range of variation. No two brains are exactly alike, and the greatest source of error in the assertions of Benedict and Lombroso has been the finding of this or that variation in a criminal's brains, and maintaining such to be characteristic of the 'criminal constitution,' unmindful of the fact that like variations of structure may and do exist in the brains of normal, moral persons.

  Edward Anthony Spitzka

  Creativity, Two, Errors

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• The more I study it [the Constitution], the more I have come to admire it, realizing that no other document devised by the hand of man ever brought so much progress and happiness to humanity.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Men, Hands, Presidential

  Calvin Coolidge (2001). “The Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century”, Images from the Past Incorporated

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• Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution . .

  William Howard Taft

  Presidential, Important, Liberty

  William Howard Taft, William Taft “Popular Government: Its Essence, Its Permanence and Its Perils”, Transaction Publishers

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• Thank God, under our Constitution there was no connection between Church and State, and that in my action as President of the United States I recognized no distinction of creeds in my appointments office.

  James K. Polk

  Office, Presidential, Thank God

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• And I should like to assure you, my Islamic friends, that under the American Constitution, under American tradition, and in American hearts, this Center, this place of worship, is just as welcome as could be a similar edifice of any other religion. Indeed, America would fight with her whole strength for your right to have here your own church and worship according to your own conscience. This concept is indeed a part of America, and without that concept we would be something else than what we are.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Islamic, Heart, Fighting

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• Whatever one's religion in his private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts - including the First Amendment and the strict separation of church and state.

  John F. Kennedy

  Presidential, Atheism, Church

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• As you know, the separation of church and state is not subject to discussion or alteration. Under our Constitution no church or religion can be supported by the U.S. Government. We maintain freedom of religion so that an American can either worship in the church of his choice or choose to go to no church at all.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Government, Choices, Presidential

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• Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race.

  William Howard Taft

  Race, Civilization, Presidential

  William Howard Taft, William Taft “Popular Government: Its Essence, Its Permanence and Its Perils”, Transaction Publishers

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• The framers of the Constitution realized that . . . there needed to be some guardian of the sober second thought, and so they created the Senate to fulfill that high and vitally important duty.

  Elihu Root

  Political, Important, Sober

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• The framers of our Constitution understood the dangers of unbridled government surveillance. They knew that democracy could flourish only in spaces free from government snooping and interference, and they put restraints on government overreaching in the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights. . . . These protections require, at a minimum, a neutral arbiter - a magistrate - standing between the government's endless desire for information and the citizens' desires for privacy.

  Elizabeth Holtzman

  Government, Space, Rights

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• For the Humanist, . . . head and heart . . . must function together. . . . The constitution of the Phillips Exeter Academy reads: 'Though goodness without knowledge . . . is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous. . . . Both united form the noblest character and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind.'

  Corliss Lamont

  Heart, Character, Together

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• Last year I was on Pat Robertson's show, and we discussed our basic Christian faith - for instance, separation of church and state. It's contrary to my beliefs to try to exalt Christianity as having some sort of preferential status in the United States. That violates the Constitution. I'm not in favor of mandatory prayer in school or of using public funds to finance religious education.

  Jimmy Carter

  Christian, Religious, Prayer

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• One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Christian, Dream, Children

  "Why we can't wait".

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• Going around this country, I have found a great hunger in America for spiritual revival; for a belief that law must be based on a higher law; for a return to traditions and values that we once had. Our government, in its most sacred documents - the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and all - speak of man being created, of a Creator; that we're a nation under God.

  Ronald Reagan

  Spiritual, Country, Men

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• The President, and government, will only control the militia when a part of them is in the actual service of the federal government, else, they are independent and not under the command of the president or the government. The states would control the militia, only when called out into the service of the state, and then the governor would be commander in chief where enumerated in the respective state constitution.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Independent, Government, President

  "The Federalist Papers". Book by Alexander Hamilton, essay No. 69, 1787 - 1788.

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• I shall make it my chief business to see that the [royal] executive power has its place in the constitution.

  Honore Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau

  Executive Power, Royal, Revolution

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• The revolution is the war of liberty against its enemies. The constitution is the rule of liberty against its enemies. The constitution is the rule of liberty when victorious and peaceable.

  Maximilien Robespierre

  War, Enemy, Liberty

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• The makers of our Constitution . . . conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Men, Law Courts, Rights

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928) See Brandeis 1

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• When the doctrine of allegiance to party can utterly up-end a man's moral constitution and make a temporary fool of him besides, what excuse are you going to offer for preaching it, teaching it, extending it, perpetuating it? Shall you say, the best good of the country demands allegiance to party? Shall you also say it demands that a man kick his truth and his conscience into the gutter, and become a mouthing lunatic, besides?

  Mark Twain

  Country, Party, Teaching

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• [the framers of the Constitution] intended our government should be a republic, which differs more widely from a democracy than a democracy from a despotism.

  Fisher Ames

  Government, Historical, Democracy

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• It is clear that those constitutions which aim at the common good are right, as being in accord with absolute justice; while those which aim only at the good of the rulers are wrong.

  Aristotle

  Justice, Political, Common

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• The right constitutions, three in number- kingship, aristocracy, and polity- and the deviations from these, likewise three in number - tyranny from kingship, oligarchy from aristocracy, democracy from polity.

  Aristotle

  Numbers, Political, Democracy

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• ... the community suffers nothing very terrible if its cobblers are bad and become degenerate and pretentious; but if the Guardians of its laws and constitution, who alone have the opportunity to bring it good government and prosperity, become a mere sham, then clearly it is completely ruined.

  Plato

  Opportunity, Government, Law

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• Generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, says what the states can't do to you, says what the federal government can't do to you. But it doesn't say what the state or federal government must do on your behalf.

  Barack Obama

  Government, Insightful, Liberty

  "Glenn Beck: Obama TOLD us this was coming". "Glenn Beck Radio Program", www.glennbeck.com. 2001.

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