Constitution Quotes - Page 5

• Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Change, Constitution Of The United States, Reason

  Alexander Hamilton, Donald R. Hickey, Connie D. Clark (2006). “Citizen Hamilton: The Wit and Wisdom of an American Founder”, p.37, Rowman & Littlefield

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• It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it [the Constitution] a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.

  James Madison

  Reflection, Men, Hands

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.166

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• The right of an individual to conduct intimate relationships in the intimacy of his or her own home seems to me to be the heart of the Constitutions protection of privacy.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Home, Heart, Intimate Relationships

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• The words of the Constitution... are so unrestricted by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by tradition or by prior decisions that they leave the individual Justice free, if indeed they do not compel him, to gather meaning not from reading the Constitution but from reading life.

  Felix Frankfurter

  Reading, Justice, Decision

  "Parliamentary Affairs". "The Supreme Court", Volume 3, No. 1, Winter 1949.

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• We current justices read the Constitution in the only way that we can: as 20th-century Americans.

  William J. Brennan

  Justice, Way, Century

  "The Constitution of the United States: Contemporary Ratification" (speech),Washington, D.C., 12 Oct. 1985

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• I think that the proposed constitution is one of the European legal documents with the strongest social dimension I have seen since I began following European issues.

  Jean-Pierre Raffarin

  Thinking, Issues, Dimensions

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• I created no authority that wasn't already there under the constitution.

  John Engler

  Authority

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• The Constitution wanted artists to have control over their works because they knew it would create incentive to create more works. That is clearly still the goal.

  Hilary Rosen

  Artist, Goal, Incentives

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• Tolerance is carved into the rostrum of the U.S. House of Representatives and intolerance should not be carved into the U.S. Constitution.

  Jay Inslee

  House, Tolerance, Should

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• A federal judge did as he was supposed to do and upheld the Constitution. We should be thankful that we have judiciary that will do that.

  Michael Newdow

  Judging, Being Thankful, Thankfulness

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• No constitution is or can be perfectly symmetrical, what it can and must be is generally accepted as both fair and usable.

  Ferdinand Mount

  Accepted, Symmetrical, Fairs

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• But I deny that the Constitution recognizes property in man.

  William H. Seward

  Men, Ethos, Deny

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• [The purpose of a written constitution is] to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril that their acquiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those rights.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Rights, Government, Law

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• The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Civil War-when I really think about them they all seem about as likely as the parting of the Red Sea.

  Sarah Vowell

  War, Thinking, Sea

  FaceBook post by Sarah Vowell from Mar 25, 2010

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• I can find no warrant for such appropriation in the Constitution.

  Grover Cleveland

  President, Warrants, Appropriation

  Grover Cleveland (1968). “Grover Cleveland, 1837-1908: Chronology, Documents, Bibliographical Aids”

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• The Constitution of the United States allows us to change; I don't have a problem with that.

  Lee Greenwood

  United States, Problem, Constitution Of The United States

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• I maintain that the House is bound by the Constitution to receive the petitions; after which, it will take such method of deciding upon them as reason and principle shall dictate.

  Caleb Cushing

  House, Principles, Reason

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• This is a time for a national conversation. A conversation about the document that binds us as a nation and a people. That document, of course, is the Constitution.

  Mike DeWine

  People, Conversation, Courses

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• If I am confirmed, I will commit to show Heller and the principles articulated in it the full measure of respect that is due to all constitution decisions of the court.

  Elena Kagan

  Decision, Principles, Court

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• Obviously, I'll keep fighting to uphold the Constitution.

  Michael Newdow

  Fighting

  "Litigant explains why he brought Pledge suit". "Talkback Live" with Arthel Neville, www.cnn.com. June 26, 2002.

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• In the formation of such a government, it is not only the right, but the indispensable duty of every citizen to examine the principles of it, to compare them with the principles of other governments, with a constant eye to our particular situation and circumstances, and thus endeavor to foresee the future operations of our own system, and its effects upon human happiness. Convinced of this truth, I have no apology to offer for the following remarks, but an earnest desire to be useful to my country.

  Noah Webster

  Country, Eye, Apology

  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.6

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• [T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes - rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provides for amendments.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Political, Amendments, Combat

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• The Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all.

  George Washington

  People, Changed, Explicit

  Farewell Address, Philadelphia, Pa., 19 Sept. 1796

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• The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.

  Henry Clay

  America, Democracy, United States

  Henry Clay (1863). “Life and times”, p.344

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• A new constitution should be more amendable. A needlessly confusing system of courts should be altered to produce an arrangement that would be simple, responsible, and less awkward.

  Charles Edison

  Simple, Awkward, Confusing

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