Bill Of Rights Quotes - Page 5

• If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Rights, Feelings

  Thomas Jefferson (1853). “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.319

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• The next time you get the urge to shut somebody up because they don't see the world exactly the same way you do, take a deep breath, get out your Bill of Rights, and count to the ten amendments.

  Dennis Miller

  Rights, World, Bills

  Dennis Miller (2010). “Rants”, p.105, Main Street Books

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• I have little patience with people who take the Bill of Rights for granted. The Bill of Rights, contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, is every American's guarantee of freedom.

  Harry S. Truman

  Rights, People, Guarantees

  Harry S. Truman (1956). “Memoirs”

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• We deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights-older than our political parties, older than our school system.

  William O. Douglas

  Party, School, Rights

  Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

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• All art is based on nonconformity ... Without nonconformity we would have had no Bill of Rights or Magna Carta, no public education system, no nation upon this continent, no continent, no science at all, no philosophy, and considerably fewer religions.

  Ben Shahn

  Art, Philosophy, Rights

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• From my admittedly cranky perspective, Bush/Cheney are lousy on the Bill of Rights, Clinton/Gore were lousy on the Bill of Rights, and everyone within bribing distance of the 2008 election (Hillary, McCain, Giuliani) are lousy on the Bill of Rights, too.

  Matt Welch

  Distance, Rights, Perspective

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• I cannot find words to express the depth of my loss or outrage about what's happening to this country. I don't know if I can find the words for it, but if this country ever recovers, it will not be in my lifetime. If I were elected President, the first thing I would do would be to set up a Department of Restoring the Bill of Rights. I would have 10,000 people working there.

  Sara Paretsky

  Country, Loss, Rights

  Source: www.progressive.org

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• Our bill of rights has been shredded. The fourth amendment specifically prohibits the kind of activities the NSA is involved in domestically. The fifth amendment prohibits any president or anyone else from killing anyone without due process.

  Ray McGovern

  Rights, Nsa, President

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Meantime the education of the general mind never stops. The reveries of the true and simple are prophetic. What the tender poeticyouth dreams, and prays, and paints today, but shuns the ridicule of saying aloud, shall presently be the resolutions of public bodies, then shall be carried as grievance and bill of rights through conflict and war, and then shall be triumphant law and establishment for a hundred years, until it gives place, in turn, to new prayers and pictures.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Dream, Prayer, War

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.560, Library of America

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• As soon as the economic freedom which the market economy grants to its members is removed, all political liberties and bills of rights become humbug.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Rights, Political, Liberty

  Ludwig Von Mises (1990). “Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays”

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• The average citizen expresses pride in the American Bill of Rights and then seeks to protect his real estate by restrictive covenants.

  Harry Allen Overstreet

  Real, Pride, Rights

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• The notion that Americans can be protected from "terror" by giving up the Bill of Rights is absurd. Democrats are complicit in this absurd notion. Many were intimidated into voting for police state legislation, because they lacked the intestinal fortitude to call police state legislation by its own name. The legislation that has been passed during the Bush regime is far more dangerous to Americans than Muslim terrorists.

  Paul Craig Roberts

  Giving Up, Names, Rights

  "Will the Democrats Become Part of the Problem?". www.informationclearinghouse.info. November 9, 2006.

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• The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live, and fear breeds repression. Too often sinister threats to the bill of rights, to freedom of the mind, are concealed under the patriotic cloak, of anti-communism.

  Adlai Stevenson I

  Patriotic, Rights, Insightful

  "Lend Me Your Ears : Great Speeches In History" by William Safire, (p. 81), 2004.

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• Revealingly, the central function of the Constitution as law--the supreme law--was to impose limitations not on the behavior of ordinary citizens but on the federal government. The government, and those who ran it, were not placed outside the law, but expressly targeted by it. Indeed, the Bill of Rights is little more than a description of the lines that the most powerful political officials are barred from crossing, even if they have the power to do so and even when the majority of citizens might wish them to do so.

  Glenn Greenwald

  Powerful, Law, Rights

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• The First Amendment freedom of religion is as important today as when the Bill of Rights was first written.

  Arlen Specter

  Rights, Important, Today

  "Joining Race, Specter Attacks the Right" by Richard L. Berke, www.nytimes.com. 1995.

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• To be patriotic is to be able to question government policy in times of crisis. To be patriotic is to stand up for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution in times of uncertainty and insecurity. To be patriotic is to speak up against the powerful in defense of the weak and the voiceless. To be patriotic is to be willing to pay the price to preserve our freedoms, dignity, and rights. To be patriotic is to challenge the abuses of the PATRIOT Act.

  Sami Al-Arian

  Freedom, Powerful, Patriotic

  "Dr. Sami Al-Arian vs Big Brother's 'Ministry of Justice'" by Eileen Fleming, bigthink.com. 2017.

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• This might explain why Obama gave billions to Wall Street crooks, and dragged the Iraq and Afghan wars on and on.
  Happily for the busy lunatics who rule over us, we are permanently the United States of Amnesia. We learn nothing because we remember nothing... We have ceased to be a nation under law but instead a homeland where the withered Bill of Rights, like a dead trumpet vine, clings to our pseudo-Roman columns.

  Gore Vidal

  Wall, War, Rights

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• We have a Bill of Rights, we have trial by jury. We have a notion that you are - you're innocent until you're proven guilty. We have all these things.

  Joe Biden

  Rights, Trials, Bills

  Interview with Rachel Maddow, www.msnbc.com. February 18, 2016.

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• The issues that I think matter, that I think resonate with the voters are, No. 1, defending our freedoms, defending the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. No. 2, lifting the boot of Washington off of the back of the necks of small businesses so that people can have jobs again, wages can come back again, fighting for the working class, you are getting hammered by Washington. And, No. 3, keeping this country safe, a strong commander in chief we can trust to keep us safe. That's what I'm looking for.

  Ted Cruz

  Country, Strong, Jobs

  Interview with Glenn Thrush, www.politico.com. July 18, 2016.

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• I'm working on "Living the Bill of Rights," and it's about people - well, it starts with Brennan and Douglas as people who not only live the Bill of Rights, but try to shape the reason for that.

  Nat Hentoff

  Rights, People, Trying

  Source: thedailyhatch.org

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• The Founders who crafted our Constitution and Bill of Rights were careful to draft a Constitution of limited powers - one that would protect Americans' liberty at all times - both in war, and in peace.

  Al Franken

  War, Rights, Liberty

  "Why I Voted Against the National Defense Authorization Act" by Al Franken, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 16, 2011.

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• There are things about classic liberalism that obviously I'm drawn to and I bet all of you are as well. Those are things like liberty, freedom, the Bill of Rights. But the reason that I reject the label is that I grew up cutting my teeth against the liberals.

  Bill Ayers

  Cutting, Rights, Liberty

  Source: thepointmag.com

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• We have introduced equity into our life, including a uniform educational system. We have also introduced a Bill of Rights, which is not just a piece of paper, but a living document because we have created structures that are totally independent of the government and that can overrule the government, even the president.

  Nelson Mandela

  Educational, Independent, Rights

  Source: www.mott.org

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• The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were all written by affluent white males, but to discuss them in any meaningful way, you have to bring in the roles of African Americans - the enslaved blacks - and the roles of women, who were scarcely acknowledged by those documents. You have to discuss why slavery wasn't outlawed by the Constitution, why women weren't given the votes. The Bill of Rights isn't about dead white males anymore, and it's not just about live white males either; it's about every minority group that exists.

  Russell Freedman

  Meaningful, African American, Independence

  Source: www.hbook.com

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• If I were elected President, the first thing I would do would be to set up a Department of Restoring the Bill of Rights. I would have 10,000 people working there.

  Sara Paretsky

  People, President

  Source: progressive.org

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