Constitution Quotes - Page 3

• I hate to hear people say this Judge will vote so and so, because he is a Democrat -- and this one so and so because he is a Republican. It is shameful. The Judges have the Constitution for their guidance; they have no right to any politics save the politics of rigid right and justice when they are sitting in judgment upon the great matters that come before them.

  Mark Twain

  Hate, People, Justice

  Mark Twain (1960). “Mark Twain and the Government”

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• A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Tyrants, Despots

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• The Constitution is what the judges say it is, every time.

  Fred Rodell

  Judging, Judiciary

  Fred Rodell (1986). “55 Men, Story of Constitution”, p.222, Stackpole Books

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• I have never seen such extreme partisanship, such bitter partisanship, and such forgetfulness of the fate of our fathers and of the Constitution.

  Robert Byrd

  Father, Fate, Bitterness

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• The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.

  William O. Douglas

  Government, Libertarian Party, America

  "The Court years, 1939-1975: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas‎". Book by William O. Douglas, 1980.

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• The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.

  James Madison

  Miracle, Liberty, Example

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.28, University of Virginia Press

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• I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.

  James Madison

  Government, Liberty, Politics

  "Time Magazine: We Don't Need No Stinking Constitution" by Larry Elder, www.realclearpolitics.com. July 7, 2011.

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• All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.

  Andrew Jackson

  Independent, Rights, Citizens

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Just talk to me as a father ... not what the Constitution says. What do you feel?

  Joe Biden

  Father, Talk To Me, Feels

  "Roberts: I Have Been Forthcoming". www.foxnews.com. September 15, 2005.

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• Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution of your country and the government established under it. Leave evils which exist in some parts of the country, but which are beyond your control, to the all-wise direction of an over-ruling Providence. Perform those duties which are present, plain and positive. Respect the laws of your country.

  Daniel Webster

  Government, Years, America

  Letter to Dr. William B. Gooch of West Dennis, Massachusetts, in 1851. The Bay State Monthly, 1898.

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• It is the right of our people to organize to oppose any law and any part of the Constitution with which they are not in sympathy.

  Al Smith

  Sympathy, Law, People

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• As the British Constitution is the most subtle organism which has proceeded from progressive history, so the American Constitution is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.

  William E. Gladstone

  Work, Men, Historical

  North American Review, Sept./Oct. 1878

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• We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

  Gouverneur Morris

  Blessing, Order, America

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• I always made my food congenial to my constitution, and my health was always excellent.

  Giacomo Casanova

  Brilliant, Excellent, Made

  Giacomo Casanova (2013). “The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt Volume 1: The Venetian Years”, p.27, Simon and Schuster

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• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

  James Madison

  Exercise, Secular Society, Law

  Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates, J. W. Randolph, James Madison (1850). “The Virginia Report of 1799-1800: Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, Including the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia and Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions”, p.136

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• On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit of the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Patriotism, Trying, May

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States”, p.382

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• If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.

  George Washington

  Gun, Government, People

  George Washington, John Jay, Jared Sparks (1850). “Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America”, p.33, New York : J. Wiley

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• The American Constitution is the greatest governing document, and at some 7,000 words, just about the shortest.

  Stephen Ambrose

  Documents, Governing, American Constitution

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• All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.

  John Adams

  Nature, Money, Ignorance

  John Adams' Letter to Thomas Jefferson, founders.archives.gov. August 23, 1787.

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• We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.

  John Adams

  Religious, Revenge, Passion

  John Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.229

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• The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States.

  Salmon P. Chase

  Looks, Unions, States

  Texas v. White (1869)

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• What I am for is justice for everyone, just like it says in the Constitution.

  Richard Pryor

  Justice, Owners

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• In these sacred documents are embodied eternal principles that no man, group of men, or nation has the right to withhold from others. Here is our basis for freedom of individual achievement. Our Constitution with its Bill of Rights guarantees to all our people the greatest freedom ever enjoyed by the people of any great nation. This system guarantees freedom of individual enterprise, freedom to own property, freedom to start one's own business and to operate it according to one's own judgment so long as the enterprise is honorable.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Men, Rights, Long

  Ezra Taft Benson (1974). “God, family, country: our three great loyalties”

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• I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Good Morning, Death, Sleep

  Benjamin Franklin, John Bigelow (2011). “The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Written by Himself”, p.288, Cambridge University Press

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• It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.

  Molly Ivins

  Country, Struggle, America

  Molly Ivins (2010). “Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?”, p.112, Vintage

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