Conventions Quotes - Page 20

• The most that the Convention could do in such a situation, was to avoid the errors suggested by the past experience of other countries, as well as of our own; and to provide a convenient mode of rectifying their own errors, as future experience may unfold them.

  James Madison

  Country, Past, Errors

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.162

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• It would have marked a want of foresight in the convention, which our own experience would have rendered inexcusable.

  James Madison

  Want, Constitutional Convention, Foresight

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.205

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• [The Federal Convention] is really an assembly of demigods.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Assembly, Demigods, Constitutional Convention

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• [M]y wish is, that the Convention may adopt no temporizing expedient, but probe the defects of the Constitution [i.e., the Articles of Confederation] to the bottom, and provide radical cures.

  George Washington

  Wish, May, Constitution

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• The business being thus closed . . . dined together and took a cordial leave of each other After which I returned to my lodgings, did some business with and received the papers from the secretary of the Convention, and retired to meditate on the momentous work which had been executed.

  George Washington

  Together, Paper, Constitutional Convention

  George Washington (1835). “The writings of George Washington: being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes, and illustrations”, p.541

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• [T]he Constitution ought to be the standard of construction for the laws, and that wherever there is an evident opposition, the laws ought to give place to the Constitution. But this doctrine is not deducible from any circumstance peculiar to the plan of convention, but from the general theory of a limited Constitution.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Law, Giving, Doctrine

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Quentin P. Taylor, John Jay (1998). “The essential Federalist: a new reading of the Federalist papers”, Madison House Pub

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• Every democratic system evolves its own conventions. It is not only the water but the banks which make the river.

  Indira Gandhi

  Women, Rivers, Water

  Indira Gandhi (1975). “India: The Speeches and Reminiscences of Indira Gandhi”

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• The convention missionaries call "modesty" has no standard, and cannot have one, because it is opposed to nature and reason and is therefore an artificiality and subject to anybody's whim - anybody's diseased caprice.

  Mark Twain

  Modesty, Reason, Caprice

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• According to the conventions of the genre, Augustus Waters kept his sense of humor till the end, did not for a moment waiver in his courage, and his spirit soared like an indomitable eagle until the world itself could not contain his joyous soul.

  John Green

  Real, Eagles, Water

  John Green (2012). “The Fault in Our Stars”, p.245, Penguin

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• In 1945, peace broke out. It was the end of the Joke. Joke warfare was banned at a special session of the Geneva Convention, and in 1950 the last remaining copy of the joke was laid to rest here in the Berkshire countryside, never to be told again.

  Graham Chapman

  Special, Warfare, Lasts

  "Monty Python's Flying Circus". TV Series, 1969 - 1974.

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• Art is triumphant when it can use convention as an instrument of its own purpose.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Purpose, Use

  W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.264, Random House

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• I've done a couple of fan conventions and [the fans] are legion. They're rather like Star Wars or Star Trek fans. We're very glad of the loyal fans - but it's a strange way to spend your life, dressing up like Star Wars. At least we change our costumes - I don't spend 40 years dressed up as Tywin Lannister.

  Charles Dance

  Stars, Couple, War

  "Game of Thrones, Charles Dance interview: ‘I treat Peter Dinklage appallingly’". Interview with James Lachno, www.telegraph.co.uk. March 31, 2013.

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• There are many who subscribe to the convention that service is a business cost, but our data demonstrates that superior service is an investment that can help drive business growth. Investing in quality talent, and ensuring they have the skills, training and tools that enable them to empathize and actively listen to customers are central to providing consistently excellent service experiences.

  Jim Bush

  Educational, Data, Skills Training

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• There is nothing sacred about convention; there is nothing sacred about primitive passions or whims; but the fact that a convention exists indicates that a way of living has been devised capable of maintaining itself.

  George Santayana

  Passion, Sacred, Way

  George Santayana (1945). “The Middle Span”

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• How should we Democrats select the next presidential nominee? Smoke filled rooms? Brokered convention? National primary? Personally, I prefer jump shots from the top of the key.

  Bill Bradley

  Basketball, Keys, Nba

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• The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.

  James Madison

  Men, Ideas, Slavery

  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, Yate's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”

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• The United States Constitutional Convention, except for three or four persons, thought prayers unnecessary.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Prayer, Religion, Atheism

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• The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religious, Religion, Atheism

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.80, Vintage

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• A political convention is after all not a meeting of a corporation's board of directors; it is a fiesta, a carnival, a pig-rooting, horse-snorting, band-playing, voice-screaming medieval get-together of greed, practical lust, compromised idealism, career-advancement, meeting, feud, vendetta, conciliation, of rabble-rousers, fist fights (as it used to be), embraces, drunks (again as it used to be) and collective rivers of animal sweat.

  Norman Mailer

  Horse, Fear, Fighting

  Norman Mailer (1968). “The idol and the octopus: political writings, on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations”

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• All the Congress, all the accountants and tax lawyers, all the judges, and a convention of wizards all cannot tell for sure what the income tax law says.

  Walter Wriston

  Law, Judging, Liberty

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• THE Constitution proposed by the convention may be considered under two general points of view. The FIRST relates to the sum or quantity of power which it vests in the government, including the restraints imposed on the States. The SECOND, to the particular structure of the government, and the distribution of this power among its branches.

  James Madison

  Government, Views, Two

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1831). “The Federalist on the New Constitution”, p.200

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• But as the plan of the convention aims only at a partial union or consolidation, the State governments would clearly retain all the rights of sovereignty which they before had, and which were not, by that act, EXCLUSIVELY delegated to the United States.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Rights, Government, United States

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.140

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• But the Chief Justice says, 'There must be an ultimate arbiter somewhere.' True, there must; but does that prove it is either party? The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their deputies in convention, at the call of Congress or of two-thirds of the States. Let them decide to which they mean to give an authority claimed by two of their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity of our Constitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that of other nations is at once to force.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Party, Mean, Two

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.298

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• If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed in the Convention where I had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it.

  George Washington

  Religious, Rights, Honor

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1848). “pt. V. Speeches and messages to Congress, proclamations, and addresses”, p.155

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• The Constitution is said to have beautiful features; but when I come to examine these features, Sir, they appear to me horribly frightful. Among other deformities, it has an awful squinting - it squints towards monarchy. And does not this raise indignation in the breast of every true American? Your president may easily become king. Where are your checks in this government? I would rather infinitely - and I am sure most of this convention are of the same opinion - have a king, lords, and commons than a government so replete with such insupportable evils.

  Patrick Henry

  Beautiful, Kings, Squinting

  Speech, www.let.rug.nl. June 07, 1788.

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