Constitution Quotes - Page 4

• I am sworn to uphold the Constitution as Andy Johnson understands it and interprets it.

  Andrew Johnson

  Johnson

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• A constitution that is made for all nations is made for none.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Made, Nations

  Joseph de Maistre (2017). “The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion and Enlightenment”, p.80, Routledge

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• The pursuit of happiness is in our Constitution. We're all entitled to have the best we can

  Loretta Swit

  Happiness, Pursuit, Entitled

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• Even though we now have the half-century-old new Constitution, there is a popular sentiment of support for the old one that lives on in reality in some quarters.

  Kenzaburo Oe

  Reality, Support, Half

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• The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

  Lamar S. Smith

  Religion, Freedom Of Religion

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• The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly held that marriage is one of the most fundamental rights that we have as Americans under our Constitution.

  Ted Olson

  Marriage, Rights, Usa

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• I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity.

  Franklin Pierce

  Charity, Authority

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• The critical point is that the Constitution places the right of silence
  beyond the reach of government.

  William O. Douglas

  Government, Silence, Critical

  "Ullmann v. United States, 350 U.S. 422". U.S. Supreme Court case, supreme.justia.com. March 26, 1956.

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• It is becoming more widely acknowledged that it is better to have a good constitution than not having a perfect one.

  Romano Prodi

  Perfect One, Becoming, Perfect

  "Full interview with Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission". www.euractiv.com. February 20, 2004.

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• From Watergate we learned what generations before us have known; our Constitution works. And during Watergate years it was interpreted again so as to reaffirm that no one - absolutely no one - is above the law.

  Leon Jaworski

  Years, Law, Generations

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• Whatever may be the judgement pronounced on the competency of the architects of the Constitution, or whatever may be the destiny of the edifice prepared by them, I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn conviction . . . that there never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them.

  James Madison

  Destiny, Men, Profound

  James Madison, E. H. Scott (1898). “Journal of the Federal Convention”, p.51, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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• The constitution is the ultimate custodian of social will and its making should be accorded all due diligence.

  Mwai Kibaki

  Custodians, Due Diligence, Social

  Mwai Kibaki (2003). “Building a working nation: speeches by H.E. President Mwai Kibaki : December 2002 - July 2003”

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• To every people the land is given on condition. Perceived or not, there is a Covenant, beyond the constitution, beyond sovereign guarantee, beyond the nation's sweetest dreams of itself.

  Leonard Cohen

  Dream, Land, People

  Leonard Cohen (2010). “Book of Mercy”, p.27, McClelland & Stewart

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• And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions.

  Samuel Adams

  Army, Rights, People

  Debates of the Massachusetts Convention, 1788.

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• The right to procreate is not guaranteed, explicitly or implicitly, by the Constitution

  Robert Bork

  Robert H. Bork (2009). “The Tempting of America”, p.66, Simon and Schuster

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• My role isn't to be politically smart. My role is to do what's right under the constitution. And if that's politically unpopular, so be it.

  Rose Bird

  Smart, Roles, Ifs

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• In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government, but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and believe further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Believe, Blessing, Thinking

  On the Constitution (1787)

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• The Constitution of the United States was made by white men, the citizens and representatives of twelve slaveholding and one non-slaveholding State; and it was made for white men.

  John Henninger Reagan

  Men, White Man, United States

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• The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Happiness, Happy

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• As new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Discovery, Pace, Opinion

  Thomas Jefferson (1998). “Thomas Jefferson: His Words and Vision”, p.18, Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

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• In the name of the constitution of Texas, which has been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. I love Texas too well to bring civil strife and bloodshed upon her.

  Sam Houston

  Texas, Names, Civil War

  Sam Houston (1943). “The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813-1863: 1825-1863”

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• We shouldn't have to be burdened with all the technicalities that come up from time to time with shrewd, smart lawyers interpreting what the laws or what the Constitution may or may not say.

  Dan Quayle

  Smart, Law, May

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• Only we, the public, can force our representatives to reverse their abdication of the war powers that the Constitution gives exclusively to the Congress.

  Daniel Ellsberg

  War, Hero, Giving

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• With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.

  James Madison

  Character, Government, Liberty

  James Madison's letter to James Robertson, April 20, 1831.

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• Our plan is to struggle against terrorism and have security for the country and help draft a democratic constitution as soon as possible.

  Jalal Talabani

  Country, Struggle, Helping

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