Legislature Quotes - Page 7

I care very much about women and their progress. I didn’t go march in the streets, but when I was in the Arizona Legislature, one of the things that I did was to examine every single statute in the state of Arizona to pick out the ones that discriminated against women and get them changed.

Sandra Day O'Connor

Progress, Arizona, Care

"Case Closed". Interview with Deborah Solomon, www.motherjones.com. March 16, 2009.

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But being in the closet uniquely assisted me in politics. From my first run for the state legislature until my election as governor, all too often I was not leading but following my best guess at public opinion.

James McGreevey

Running, Public Opinion, Firsts

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There is also something called the Legislature. There is something called the press. There is something called people. These are all different players on the stage.

Andrew Cuomo

Player, People, Different

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When legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.

John Adams

People, Undone

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Lesson 1 from Spitzer: Don't alienate the legislature on Day 1.

Andrew Cuomo

Lessons

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Congress and state legislatures should not tell teachers how to teach, any more than they should tell surgeons how to perform operations.

Diane Ravitch

Teacher, States, Should

Diane Ravitch (2011). “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education”, p.224, Basic Books

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Emma Willard told the legislature that the education of women "has been too exclusively directed to fit them for displaying to advantage the charms of youth and beauty" The problem, she said, was that "the taste of men, whatever it might happen to be, has made into a standard for the formation of the female character." Reason and religion teach us, she said, that "we too are primary existences...not the satellites of men.

Howard Zinn

Character, Men, Female

Howard Zinn (2014). “A People's History of the United States”, p.105, Pan Macmillan

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...one of the first achievements of the legislature was to institute a ten-thousand-dollar agricultural fair to show off forty dollars' worth of pumpkins in - however, the Territorial legislature was usually spoken of as the "asylum".

Mark Twain

Achievement, Firsts, Dollars

Mark Twain (2015). “Roughing It: Mark Twain's Collections”, p.327, 谷月社

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...Cities may be rebuilt, and a People reduced to Poverty, may acquire fresh Property: But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrendered their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.

John Adams

Government, Cities, People

John Adams (2003). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.50, Penguin

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In New Mexico, I inherited the largest structural deficit in state history, and our legislature is controlled by Democrats. We don't always agree, but we came together in a bipartisan manner and turned that deficit into a surplus. And we did it without raising taxes.

Susana Martinez

Together, Mexico, States

"Paul Ryan Speaks at Republican National Convention". CNN Live Event/Special, www.cnn.com. August 29, 2012.

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A legislature cannot be effective while suffering from public scorn.

John Bercow

Suffering, Scorn

"Profile: Commons Speaker, John Bercow" by David Hencke, www.theguardian.com. June 22, 2009.

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Despite two decisions, in 2008 and 2010, by the U.S. Supreme Court unequivocally affirming that the Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms against infringement by the government, state legislatures continue to do just that - enact laws that significantly infringe this fundamental human right.

Bob Barr

Government, Law, Two

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But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years.

Thomas Jefferson

Wise, Government, Debt Free

Thomas Jefferson, Brett F. Woods (2009). “Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence”, p.93, Algora Publishing

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When a legislature decides to steal some of our rights and plans to use police force to accomplish it, what's the real difference between them and the thief? Darn little! They hide behind the excuse that they're legislating democratically. The fact they do it by a majority vote has no moral significance whatsoever. Numerical might does not constitute right, no more than a lynch mob can justify its act because a majority participated.

H. L. Richardson

Real, Rights, Majority Vote

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And that's the mission of The Innocence Project in New York, is to exonerate people who have been wrongfully convicted, and also work from a policy angle with Congress and state legislatures to prevent future wrongful convictions.

John Grisham

New York, People, Innocence

"Piers Morgan Tonight", www.cnn.com. December 9, 2011.

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Let men learn that a legislature is not 'our God upon earth,' though, by the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed.

Herbert Spencer

Men, Thinking, Purpose

Herbert Spencer (1873). “Social Statics; Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, & the First of Them Developed”, p.230

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The mystic reverence, the religious allegiance, which are essential to a true monarchy, are imaginative sentiments that no legislature can manufacture in any people.

Walter Bagehot

Religious, People, Religion

'The English Constitution' (1867) 'The Cabinet'

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There are legions of [Aquarian, New Age, One World Religion] conspirators. They are in corporations, universities, and hospitals, on the faculties of public schools, in factories and doctors offices, in state and federal agencies, on city councils, and the White House staff, in state legislatures, in volunteer organizations, in virtually all arenas of policy making in the country.

Marilyn Ferguson

Country, School, World Religions

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Before the advent of Hitler or Stalin, who took their power from the German and the Russian people, measures were thrust upon the free legislatures of those countries to deprive the people of the possession and use of firearms, so that they could not resist the encroachments of such diabolical and vitriolic state police organizations as the Gestapo, the Ogpu, and the Cheka.

Edwin Arthur Hall

Country, Organization, People

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Although I entertain great respect and regard for the female sex I consider the qualifications of the ladies to be already sufficiently charming without adding to their influence in society by conferring on them the right to vote for members of the legislature.

James Francis

Sex, Women, Female

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The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few and the unscrupulous who represent or control capital. Hundreds of laws of Congress and the state legislatures are in the interest of these men and against the interests of workingmen. These need to be exposed and repealed. All laws on corporations, on taxation, on trusts, wills, descent, and the like, need examination and extensive change. This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Real, Men, Hands

Diary entry. "Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes: Nineteenth President of the United States". Book edited by Charles Richard Williams, The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, March 11, 1888.

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In republican government the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this . . . is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them by different modes of election, and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions, and their common dependence on the society, will admit.

James Madison

Government, Political, Principles

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2009). “The Federalist”, p.341, Harvard University Press

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The first thing I plan to do is what I did while serving in Arizona’s legislature — and that was to seek out members that I often disagreed with on important issues. It was through our authentic relationships and mutual respect that we found common ground on legislation that helped people. The challenge for Congress is to move past the harsh partisanship that we saw in the last term. This is a critical step in advancing policies that will strengthen and protect LGBT families.

Kyrsten Sinema

Moving, Past, Issues

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What’s happened is that, almost overnight, we’ve switched from democracy in real-property recording to oligarchy in real-property recording. There was no court case behind this, no statute from Congress or the state legislatures. It was accomplished in a private corporate decision. The banks just did it.

Christopher Peterson

Real, Decision, Democracy

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Politics is all about getting and keeping power, and in politics, the professionals in the business soon learn that the only way to get and keep power is to force people to talk to them. A full-time legislature thinks of more and more things to regulate and discuss.

Ray Haynes

Thinking, People, Political

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