Legislators Quotes

• No man can be a competent legislator who does not add to an upright intention and a sound judgment a certain degree of knowledge of the subject on which he is to legislate.

  James Madison

  Men, Sound, Degrees

  James Madison, John Jay (1847). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.216

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• Legislators represent people, not trees or acres. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities or economic interests.

  Earl Warren

  Cities, People, Tree

  Earl Warren (1977). “The memoirs of Earl Warren”

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• We live in a stage of politics, where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their enforcement.

  William Howard Taft

  Law, Presidential, Important

  William Howard Taft, David Henry Burton (2009). “William Howard Taft: Essential Writings and Addresses”, p.125, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press

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• No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

  Mark Twain

  Life, Trust, Freedom

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• The Constitution is the origin and measure of legislative authority. It says to legislators, thus far ye shall go and no farther. Not a particle of it should be shaken; not a pebble of it should be removed.

  William Paterson

  Law, Political, Measurement

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• Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Life, Poetry, World

  A Defence of Poetry (written 1821) See Auden 22; Auden 39; Andrew Fletcher 1; Samuel Johnson 22; Twain 104

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• Legislators consistently put the political imperative before the national interest.

  Doug Bandow

  Political, Interest, Imperatives

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• When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Witty, Funny Inspirational, Government

  P J O'Rourke (1992). “Parliament of Whores-Open Mark”, Vintage Books USA

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• Its hardly a radical idea to suggest that regulators and legislators understand the law now, is it?

  Nigel Farage

  Law, Ideas, Radical

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• Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.

  William S. Burroughs

  Change, Art, Real

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Artists to my mind are the real architects of change.

  William S. Burroughs

  Real, Artist, Mind

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

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• People underestimate the impact they can have on the process through contact with legislators. By being part of an organized group in an area that you have an interest in, you can multiply the impact of your own ideas.

  Ralph Regula

  Impact, Ideas, People

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• People have a deep need to be legislators, and the idea of autonomy has become very precious.

  Martha C. Nussbaum

  Ideas, People, Needs

  Source: www.neh.gov

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• The woman, in a battle of fists or guns, may not be as great a power as a man; but a woman behind a vote is every bit as useful as a man.

  Irene Parlby

  Women, Gun, Voting

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• It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.

  Aristotle

  Men, Special, Use

  Aristotle (2016). “Politics”, p.49, Aristotle

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• Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.

  John Locke

  Freedom, War, People

  John Locke (1947). “Two Treatises of Government: With a Supplement, Patriarcha, by Robert Filmer”, p.233, Simon and Schuster

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• That the foundation of our national policy should be laid in private morality. If individuals be not influenced by moral principles, it is in vain to look for public virtue; it is, therefore, the duty of legislators to enforce, both by precept and example, the utility, as well as the necessity, of a strict adherence to the rules of distributive justice.

  James Madison

  Justice, Voting, Foundation

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• For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Bible, Light, Years

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.211, Graphic Arts Books

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• There is no true sovereign except the nation; there can be no true legislator except the people.

  Denis Diderot

  War, People, Sovereign

  Denis Diderot, John Hope Mason, Robert Wokler (1992). “Diderot: Political Writings”, p.81, Cambridge University Press

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• I have a proven record as an effective legislator, which I believe is my greatest asset.

  Sandy Adams

  Believe, Records, Assets

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• The job of a legislator is much more fixing existing law, revising it, improving it, than it is passing something that doesn't exist.

  Tim Kaine

  Jobs, Law, Fixing

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• A mood of constructive criticism being upon me, I propose forthwith that the method of choosing legislators now prevailing in the United States be abandoned and that the method used in choosing juries be substituted. That is to say, I propose that the men who make our laws be chosen by chance and against will of all the rest of us, as now.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Law, Criticism

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• Consequently, citizen legislators, rotating back to their communities after a short period of public service—considered an indispensable and routine characteristic and design of representative government at the time of the founding, and for a century thereafter—have been replaced with a professional ruling class led by governing masterminds. For the most part, they are isolated from the communities from which they hail and are consumed with the daily jockeying for position and power within their ranks. Moreover, they both pander to and lord over their constituents.

  Mark Levin

  Government, Class, Design

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• It is the lawyers who run our civilization for us -- our governments, our business, our private lives. Most legislators are lawyers; they make our laws. Most presidents, governors, commissioners, along with their advisers and brain-trusters are lawyers; they administer our laws. All the judges are lawyers; they interpret and enforce our laws. There is no separation of powers where the lawyers are concerned. There is only a concentration of all government power -- in the lawyers.

  Fred Rodell

  Running, Law, Civilization

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• Some legislators only wish to vengeance against a particular enemy. Others only look out for themselves. They devote very little time on the consideration of any public issue. They think that no harm will come from their neglect. They act as if it is always the business of somebody else to look after this or that. When this selfish notion is entertained by all, the commonwealth slowly begins to decay.

  Thucydides

  Selfish, Thinking, Issues

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