Constitution Quotes - Page 2

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  The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.

  Samuel Adams

  Gun, Strong Arms, People

  Debates of the Massachusetts Convention, 1788.

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• If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Freedom, Hate, Attachment

  United States v. Schwimmer (dissenting opinion) (1929)

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  Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

  John Adams

  Bible, God, Religious

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “Works: with a life of the author”, p.229

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• A Constitution is not the act of a Government, but of a people constituting a government, and a government without a constitution is a power without right.

  Thomas Paine

  Government, People

  Thomas Paine, John P. Kaminski (2002). “Citizen Paine: Thomas Paine's Thoughts on Man, Government, Society, and Religion”, p.68, Rowman & Littlefield

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• The basic guarantees of our Constitution are warrants for the here and now, and unless there is an overwhelmingly compelling reason, they are to be promptly fulfilled.

  Arthur Goldberg

  Compelling Reason, Guarantees, Here And Now

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• Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.

  Noah Webster

  Army, Gun, Power

  Noah Webster (1787). “An Examination Into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution Proposed by the Late Convention Held at Philadelphia: With Answers to the Principal Objections that Have Been Raised Against the System”, p.43

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  The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Strength, Wisdom, Veterans Day

  Letter to William Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

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• If the constitution goes, I go.

  Kamisese Mara

  Ifs

  Interview conducted in 2001, broadcast on Fijian television, April 29, 2004.

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• Very few established institutions, governments and constitutions ...are ever destroyed by their enemies until they have been corrupted and weakened by their friends.

  Walter Lippmann

  Government, Enemy, Corruption

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• Honest conviction is my courage; the Constitution is my guide.

  Andrew Johnson

  Inspirational Life, Presidential, Honest

  Andrew Johnson (1967). “The Papers of Andrew Johnson: February-July 1866”, p.151, Univ. of Tennessee Press

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• The basic premise of the Constitution was a separation of powers and a system of checks and balances because man was perceived as a fallen creature and would always yearn for more power.

  Roy Moore

  Men, Balance, Separation

  "Defender of the Decalogue". Interview With Thomas R. Eddlem, www.thenewamerican.com. December 16, 2002.

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  I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Change, Peace, Boys

  Thomas Jefferson (1997). “Thomas Jefferson, His Words and Vision”, p.18, Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

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• Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.

  Learned Hand

  Love, Freedom, Hate

  "The Spirit of Liberty" (speech), New York, N.Y., 21 May 1944

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• I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the constitution to a man who will burn the constitution and then wrap himself in the flag.

  Craig Washington

  Men, Flags, Wraps

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• I am... for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Silence, Political, Criticism

  Thomas Jefferson, Noble E. Cunningham (2001). “The Inaugural Addresses of President Thomas Jefferson, 1801 And 1805”, p.3, University of Missouri Press

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• I believe in an evolving Constitution. A flexible Constitution leaves room for us to consider not merely how the world once was, but how it ought to be.

  Eliot Spitzer

  Believe, World, Rooms

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• A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state.

  Aristotle

  Philosophical, States, Arrangements

  Aristotle, Stephen Everson (1996). “Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens”, p.69, Cambridge University Press

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• Government without a constitution, is a power without a right.

  Thomas Paine

  Government

  Thomas Paine (1795). “The Rights of Man: For the Benefit of All Mankind”, p.85

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• The Constitution is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Patriotic, Hands, Twists

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Late President of the United States”, p.325

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• In violation of the Habeas Corpus Act and the fundamental laws of our constitution these men have never been brought to trail or even allowed to see a lawyer.

  John Amery

  Men, Law, Habeas Corpus

  John Amery (2007). “John Amery Speaks, &: England and Europe”

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• Constitutions are not designed for metaphysical or logical subtleties, for niceties of expression, for critical propriety, for elaborate shades of meaning, or for the exercise of philosophical acuteness or judicial research. They are instruments of a practical nature, founded on the common business of human life, adapted to common wants, designed for common use, and fitted for common understandings.

  Joseph Story

  Philosophical, Exercise, Expression

  Joseph Story (1851). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.322

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• Our nation is being led astray by ungodly judges, mayors and governors, who are given to change, defying the Constitution and substituting their own wicked agendas.

  David Wilkerson

  Change, Judging, Wicked

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• I will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It is not the Constitution as I would like to have it, but as it is, that is to be defended. The Constitution will not be preserved & defended until it is enforced & obeyed in every part of every one of the United States. It must be so respected, obeyed, enforced and defended, and let the grass grow where it may.

  Abraham Lincoln

  United States, May, Grass

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• It is a measure of the framers' fear that a passing majority might find it expedient to compromise 4th Amendment values that these values were embodied in the Constitution itself.

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  Majority, Politics, Might

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• Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Death, 4th Of July, Promise

  Letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy, 13 Nov. 1789

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