Legislators Quotes - Page 2

• Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.

  John Locke

  Freedom, War, People

  John Locke (1947). “Two Treatises of Government: With a Supplement, Patriarcha, by Robert Filmer”, p.233, Simon and Schuster

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• The job of a legislator is much more fixing existing law, revising it, improving it, than it is passing something that doesn't exist.

  Tim Kaine

  Jobs, Law, Fixing

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• It is the lawyers who run our civilization for us -- our governments, our business, our private lives. Most legislators are lawyers; they make our laws. Most presidents, governors, commissioners, along with their advisers and brain-trusters are lawyers; they administer our laws. All the judges are lawyers; they interpret and enforce our laws. There is no separation of powers where the lawyers are concerned. There is only a concentration of all government power -- in the lawyers.

  Fred Rodell

  Running, Law, Civilization

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• It has now become a very common sentiment, that there is some deep and radical wrong somewhere, and that legislators have proved themselves incapable of discovering, or, of remedying it.

  Josiah Warren

  Common, Radical, Discovering

  Josiah Warren (1852). “Equitable commerce: a new development of principles as substitutes for laws and governments, for the harmonious adjustment and regulation of the pecuniary, intellectual, and moral intercourse of mankind, proposed as elements of new society”, p.105

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• Usurpers always bring about or select troublous times to get passed, under cover of the public terror, destructive laws, which the people would never adopt in cold blood. The moment chosen is one of the surest means of distinguishing the work of the legislator from that of the tyrant.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Mean, Tyrants, Blood

  Jean Jacques Rousseau (2015). “The Social Contract”, p.173, Jean Jacques Rousseau

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• Ideally citizens are to think of themselves as if they were legislators and ask themselves what statutes, supported by what reasons satisfying the criterion of reciprocity, they would think is most reasonable to enact.

  John Rawls

  Thinking, Citizens, Reason

  John Rawls (2001). “The Law of Peoples: With, The Idea of Public Reason Revisited”, p.56, Harvard University Press

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• As property, honestly obtained, is best secured by an equality of rights, so ill-gotten property depends for protection on a monopoly of rights. He who has robbed another of his property, will next endeavor to disarm him of his rights, to secure that property; for when the robber becomes the legislator he believes himself secure.

  Thomas Paine

  Believe, Rights, Political

  Thomas Paine (1824). “The Political Writings of Thomas Paine: Secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the American Revolution : to which is Prefixed a Brief Sketch of the Author's Life”, p.338

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• If there is ever an amelioration of the condition of mankind, philosophers, theologians, legislators, politicians and moralists will find that the regulation of the press is the most difficult, dangerous and important problem they have to resolve. Mankind cannot now be governed without it, nor at present with it.

  John Adams

  Important, Regulation, Philosopher

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.117

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• Legislators aren't known for being rocket scientists.

  Walter E. Williams

  Political, Rockets, Scientist

  Walter E. Williams (2013). “Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays”, p.126, Hoover Press

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• Most of us believe that women can do what men do. The challenge is to convince employers, legislators, mothers, that men can do what women do.

  Karen DeCrow

  Mother, Believe, Men

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• But the wisdom and authority of the legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant dexterity of private interest.

  Edward Gibbon

  Dexterity, Authority, Interest

  Edward Gibbon (2016). “The Collected Works of Edward Gibbon: Historical Works, Autobiographical Writings and Private Letters, Including The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.1156, e-artnow

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• A mood of constructive criticism being upon me, I propose forthwith that the method of choosing legislators now prevailing in the United States be abandoned and that the method used in choosing juries be substituted. That is to say, I propose that the men who make our laws be chosen by chance and against will of all the rest of us, as now.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Law, Criticism

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• The wise legislator will only rarely initiate a new rule of behaviour; more usually he will confine himself to affirming in law what has already become the custom of the people.

  Gregory Bateson

  Wise, Law, People

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• Much of the present difficulty in industrial relations arises from the fact that too many employers as well as too many legislators take the Labor Leader more seriously than he deserves to be taken, while taking the ordinary, everyday, middle-of-the-road wage-earner less seriously than he deserves to be taken.

  Whiting Williams

  Leadership, Taken, Everyday

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• And I agree that the Democratic legislators in Massachusetts might have given some advice to Republicans in Congress about how to cooperate, but the fact of the matter is we used the same advisers and they say it's the same plan.

  Barack Obama

  Presidential, Advice, Massachusetts

  First presidential Obama-Romney debate at the University of Denver, Colorado, www.npr.org. October 3, 2012.

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• At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?

  Erick Erickson

  People, House, March

  "At What Point Do People Revolt?" by Erick Erickson, www.redstate.com. March 31, 2009.

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• Prayer is the most tangible expression of trust in God. If we would trust God for our persecuted brothers and sisters in other countries, we must be diligent in prayer for their rulers. If we would trust God when decisions of government in our own country go against our best interests, we must pray for His working in the hearts of those officials and legislators who make those decisions. The truth that the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord is meant to be a stimulus to prayer, not a stimulus to a fatalistic attitude.

  Jerry Bridges

  Country, Brother, Kings

  Jerry Bridges (2016). “Trusting God”, p.81, NavPress

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• I have met with political leaders, legislators, and diplomats, seeking the next steps to press in reducing and eliminating the nuclear threat in this century. I have participated in public coalitions developing programmes for action to combat the global rash of small arms. All are trying and making a difference.

  Michael Douglas

  Nuclear Disarmament, Differences, Leader

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• A [desire] to abolish slavery prevails in North America, many of the Pennsylvanians have set their slaves at liberty, and [Virginia legislators] have petitioned the King for permission to make a law for preventing the importation of more [slaves] into that colony. This request, however, will probably not be granted, as their former laws of that kind have always been repealed.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Kings, Virginia, Law

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• Why are we mute? Where are our leaders, our legislators? Where is the church?

  Harry Belafonte

  Leader, Church, Mute

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• Teachers should be held in the highest honor. They are the allies of legislators; they have agency in the prevention of crime; they aid in regulating the atmosphere, whose incessant action and pressure cause the life-blood to circulate, and to return pure and healthful to the heart of the nation.

  Lydia Sigourney

  Inspirational, Education, Teacher

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• Few legislators who passed these mental health laws realized that (Brock) Chisholm and his associates defined mental illness as a sense of loyalty to a particular nation, a sense of loyalty to a moral code, and strict adherence to concepts of right and wrong. Chisholm has been obsessed for years with the idea that instilling concepts of right and wrong, love of country and morality in children by their parents is the paramount evil.

  John A. Stormer

  Loyalty, Country, Children

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• Legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property... Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Mean, Law

  Thomas Jefferson's letter to James Madison, founders.archives.gov. October 28, 1785.

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• Legislators need to support privacy to establish consumer confidence.

  Marc Rotenberg

  Support, Needs, Privacy

  "High tech's top 5 special interests" by Stacy Collett, www.cnn.com. July 5, 2001.

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• I think any advocate who is effective has fully acquainted himself or herself with the legislator they are going to meet. Know what committees they are on, what issues they are interested in, all in an effort to build a bridge for communicating with them.

  Mark Shields

  Thinking, Bridges, Issues

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