Constitution Quotes - Page 9

• The Constitution does not just protect those whose views we share; it also protects those with whose views we disagree.

  Edward Kennedy

  Views, Doe, Share

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally and recall the people; they fix too for the people the principles of their political creed.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Passion, People, Political

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin”, p.441

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• In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Death, Money, Business

  Letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy, 13 Nov. 1789

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• Those who made and endorsed our Constitution knew man's nature, and it is to their ideas, rather than to the temptations of utopia, that we must ask that our judges adhere.

  Robert Bork

  Men, Ideas, Judging

  Robert H. Bork (2009). “The Tempting of America”, p.355, Simon and Schuster

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• Drafting a constitution is only the first step. The constitution has to be granted legitimacy by open discussion and a fair, representative referendum.

  Emma Bonino

  Firsts, Steps, Granted

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• We say, that the Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God.

  Joseph Smith, Jr.

  United States, Standards, Glorious

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• It is the people, and not the judges, who are entitled to say what their constitution means, for the constitution is theirs, it belongs to them and not to their servants in office—any other theory is incompatible with the foundation principles of our government.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Mean, Government, People

  William L. Ransom, Theodore Roosevelt (2007). “Majority Rule and the Judiciary: An Examination of Current Proposals for Constitutional Change Affecting the Relation of Courts to Legislation”, p.6, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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• Most faults are not in our Constitution, but in ourselves.

  Ramsey Clark

  Democracy, Faults

  The Washington Post, November 12, 1970.

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• Constitutions of civil government are not to be framed upon a calculation of existing exigencies, but upon a combination of these with the probable exigencies of ages, according to the natural and tried course of human affairs. Nothing, therefore, can be more fallacious than to infer the extent of any power, proper to be lodged in the national government, from an estimate of its immediate necessities.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, Age, Framed

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in 1788”, p.147

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• The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will.

  John Marshall

  People, Democracy, Constitution Of The United States

  John Marshall, Joseph Potter Cotton (2000). “The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall”, p.417, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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• It was settled by the Constitution, the laws, and the whole practice of the government that the entire executive power is vested in the President of the United States.

  Andrew Jackson

  Government, Law, Practice

  Andrew Jackson (1835). “Annual messages, veto messages, protest, &c. of Andrew Jackson, President of the United States”, p.263

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• The health care reform legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last night clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and infringes on each state's sovereignty.

  Bill McCollum

  Night, House, Reform

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• It doesn't say anywhere in the Constitution this idea of the separation of church and state.

  Sean Hannity

  Ideas, Church, Politics

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• The Constitution gives us a standard to follow. We cannot define impeachable offenses to a greater degree than the language of the Constitution. But we all agree the issue is the public trust. Our duty is not to punish anyone. And our challenge is to avoid pettiness.

  Asa Hutchinson

  Issues, Giving, Challenges

  "Transcript: House Judiciary Committee meeting", www.cnn.com. October 5, 1998.

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• The Iraqis have once again failed to meet a deadline for a final draft of the constitution.

  Matt Lauer

  Finals, Deadline

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• Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He is by constitution expensive, and needs to be rich.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Vaccines, Needs

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.622, Modern Library

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• Progressivism is the cancer in America, and it is eating our Constitution. It was designed to eat the Constitution, to progress past the Constitution.

  Glenn Beck

  Cancer, Past, America

  Glenn Beck's Keynote Speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, www.c-span.org. February 20, 2010.

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• The Framers of the Constitution knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.

  Hugo Black

  Friendship, Enemy, Speech

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• As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Success, Agreement

  'Walden' (1854) 'Economy'

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• I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power not longer susceptible of any definition.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, People, Fields

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private : Published by the Order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the Original Manuscripts, Deposited in the Department of State”, p.556

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• We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people... it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

  John Quincy Adams

  Religious, Business, 4th Of July

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• The constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.

  John Ciardi

  Funny, Umpires, America

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• The Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.

  John Marshall Harlan

  Class, Equality Under The Law, Liberty

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• We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our property and our liberty and our property under the Constitution.

  Charles Evans Hughes

  Judging, Liberty, Property

  Charles Evans Hughes, David Joseph Danelski, Joseph S. Tulchin (1973). “The autobiographical notes of Charles Evans Hughes”, Harvard Univ Pr

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• It must always be remembered that what the Constitution forbids is not all searches and seizures, but unreasonable searches and seizures.

  Potter Stewart

  Unreasonable, Remembered, Seizures

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