Magistrates Quotes

• They are more properly ‘The Messengers of Satan to buffet us.’ No rulers are properly God’s ministers, but such as are ‘just, ruling in the fear of God.’ When once magistrates act contrary to their office, and the end of their institution when they rob and ruin the public, instead of being guardians of its peace … they immediately cease to be the ordinance and ministers of God, and no more deserve that glorious character than common pirates and highwaymen.

  Jonathan Mayhew

  Character, Office, Pirate

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• Society is well governed when its people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law.

  Solon

  Law, Umpires, People

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• The magistrate is the servant not of his own desires, not even of the people, but of his God

  John Quincy Adams

  People, Desire, Servant

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• To make an empire durable, the magistrates must obey the laws and the people the magistrates.

  Solon

  Law, People, Empires

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• The magistrates are the ministers for the laws, the judges their interpreters, the rest of us are servants of the law, that we all may be free.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Law, Umpires, Judging

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• It may not be improper, however, to remark two consequences, evidently flowing from an extension of the federal power to every subject falling within the idea of the "general welfare." One consequence must be, to enlarge the sphere of discretion allotted to the executive magistrate... The other consequence would be, that of an excessive augmentation of the offices, honors, and emoluments, depending on the executive will.

  James Madison

  Fall, Ideas, Two

  "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution".

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• For as the law is set over the magistrate, even so are the magistrates set over the people. And therefore, it may be truly said, "that the magistrate is a speaking law, and the law is a silent magistrate.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Law, People, May

  Marcus Tullius Cicero (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Cicero (Illustrated)”, p.2291, Delphi Classics

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• I think Martin Luther correctly distinguished between what he called the magisterial and ministerial uses of reason. The magisterial use of reason occurs when reason stands over and above the gospel like a magistrate and judges it on the basis of argument and evidence. The ministerial use of reason occurs when reason submits to and serves the gospel…. Should a conflict arise between the witness of the Holy Spirit to the fundamental truth of the Christian faith and beliefs based on argument and evidence, then it is the former which must take precedence over the latter.

  William Lane Craig

  Christian, Thinking, Judging

  "Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics". Book by William Lane Craig, p. 36, 1994.

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• When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Umpires, Law, Liberty

  Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (2015). “The Spirit of Laws”, p.206, Library of Alexandria

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• There was a state without king or nobles; there was a church without a bishop; there was a people governed by grave magistrates which it had selected, and by equal laws which it had framed.

  Rufus Choate

  Kings, Law, People

  Rufus Choate, Samuel Gilman Brown (1862). “The Works of Rufus Choate, with a Memoir of His Life: Memoir. Lectures and addresses”, p.379

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• Fear God, and offend not the Prince nor his laws, and keep thyself out of the magistrate's claws.

  Thomas Tusser

  Law, Fear God, Thyself

  Thomas Tusser (1812). “Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry,: As Well for the Champion Or Open Country, as for the Woodland Or Several; Together with A Book of Huswifery. Being a Calendar of Rural and Domestic Economy, for Every Month in the Year; and Exhibiting a Picture of the Agriculture, Customs, and Manners of England, in the Sixteenth Century”, p.29, Lackington, Allen

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• No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.

  John Milton

  Freedom, Stupid, Reality

  The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)

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• It is lawful and hath been held so through all ages for any one who have the power to call to account a tyrant or wicked king, and after due conviction to depose and put him to death.

  John Milton

  Kings, Tyrants, Wicked

  John Milton (1650). “The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates: Proving, that it is Lawfull, and Hath Been Held So Through All Ages, for Any, who Have the Power, to Call to Account a Tyrant, Or Wicked King, and After Due Conviction, to Depose, and Put Him to Death; If the Ordinary Magistrate Have Neglected, Or Deny'd to Doe It. And that They, who of Late So Much Blame Deposing, are the Men that Did it Themselves. Published Now the Second Time with Some Additions, and Many Testimonies Also Added Out of the Best & Learnedest Among Protestant Divines Asserting the Position of this Book”, p.24

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• None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license.

  John Milton

  Love, Freedom, Men

  The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)

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• In towns it is impossible to prevent men from assembling, getting excited together and forming sudden passionate resolves. Towns are like great meeting houses with all the inhabitants as members. In them the people wield immense influence over their magistrates and often carry their desires into execution without intermediaries.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, America, People

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1990). “Democracy in America”

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• A just and wise magistrate is a blessing as extensive as the community to which he belongs; a blessing which includes all other blessings whatsoever that relate to this life.

  Francis Atterbury

  Wise, Blessing, Community

  Francis Atterbury (1774). “Sermons and Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions”, p.58

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• One must be stark mad, to believe that mankind can subsist without magistrates.

  Pierre Bayle

  Believe, Mad, Atheism

  Pierre Bayle, Pierre Des Maizeaux, Alexis Gaudin, Anthelme Tricaud (1736). “The dictionary historical and critical of Mr. Peter Bayle”, p.671

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• We want women leaders today as never before. Leaders who are not afraid to be called names and who are willing to go out and fight. I think women can save civilization. Women are persons.

  Emily Murphy

  Leadership, Strong Women, Fighting

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• In its proper meaning equality before the law means the right to participate in the making of the laws by which one is governed, a constitution which guarantees democratic rights to all sections of the population, the right to approach the court for protection or relief in the case of the violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution, and the right to take part in the administration of justice as judges, magistrates, attorneys-general, law advisers and similar positions.

  Nelson Mandela

  Mean, Rights, Law

  Nelson Mandela (1973). “No Easy Walk to Freedom”, p.127, Heinemann

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• Our magistrates discharge their duties best at the beginning; and fall off toward the end.
  [Lat., Initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora, ferme finis inclinat.]

  Tacitus

  Fall, Law, Ends

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• He who takes the oath today to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States only assumes the solemn obligation which every patriotic citizen . . . should share with him. . . . Your every voter, as surely as your Chief Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exercises a public trust.

  Grover Cleveland

  Patriotic, Exercise, United States

  Grover Cleveland, United States. President (1885-1889 : Cleveland), United States. President (1893-1897 : Cleveland) (1968). “Grover Cleveland, 1837-1908: chronology, documents, bibliographical aids”

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• How shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many
  proud monarchs groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness; so many
  magistrates liquefying in fiercer flames than they ever kindled against the
  Christians; so many sages philosophers blushing in red-hot fires with their
  deluded pupils; so many tragedians more tuneful in the expression of their
  own sufferings; so many dancers tripping more nimbly from anguish then
  ever before from applause.

  Tertullian

  Christian, Expression, Flames

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• The framers of our Constitution understood the dangers of unbridled government surveillance. They knew that democracy could flourish only in spaces free from government snooping and interference, and they put restraints on government overreaching in the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights. . . . These protections require, at a minimum, a neutral arbiter - a magistrate - standing between the government's endless desire for information and the citizens' desires for privacy.

  Elizabeth Holtzman

  Government, Space, Rights

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• Religion in a magistrate strengthens his authority, because it procures veneration, and gains a reputation to it. In all the affairs of this world, so much reputation is in reality so much power.

  John Tillotson

  Reality, Religion, World

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• Why is it that in this courtroom I face a white magistrate, am confronted by a white prosecutor and escorted into the dock by a white orderly? Can anyone honestly and seriously suggest that in this type of atmosphere the scales of justice are evenly balanced?

  Nelson Mandela

  White, Justice, Atmosphere

  Nelson Mandela (2011). “Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations”, p.212, Pan Macmillan

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