Usurpation Quotes - Page 2

• We look back, already, with astonishment, at the daring outrages committed by despotism, on the reason and rights of man; we look forward with joy, to the period, when it shall be despoiled of all its usurpations, and bound forever in the chains, with which it had loaded its miserable victims.

  James Madison

  Men, Rights, Joy

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.467

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• As compacts, charters of government are superior in obligation to all others, because they give effect to all others. As truths, none can be more sacred, because they are bound, on the conscience by the religious sanctions of an oath. As metes and bounds of government, they transcend all other land-marks, because every public usurpation is an encroachment on the private right, not of one, but of all.

  James Madison

  Religious, Land, Government

  James Madison (1906). “The Writings of James Madison: 1790-1802”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I learned from my illiterate but wise mother that all rights to be deserved and preserved came from duty well done. Thus the very right to live accrues to us only when we do the duty of citizenship of the world. From this one fundamental statement, perhaps it is easy enough to define the duties of Man and Woman and correlate every right to some corresponding duty to be first performed. Every other right can be shown to be a usurpation hardly worth fighting for.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Wise, Mother, Fighting

  Mahatma Gandhi (1994). “The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Supplementary volume”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We thought it was only in science fiction that things created by humans could actually take over what is inherently our human heritage. But Thom Hartmann shows how we've already let that happen on a frightening scale - not in Frankenstein's monsters or Kubrick's creeping computer Hal - but in the corporations that present their friendly 'faces' to us as if we have nothing to fear from this ultimate usurpation of our rights as real humans.

  Ed Ayres

  Real, Rights, Friendly

  5 Copy quote

• When we consider that labor is the producer of all wealth, is it not evident that the impoverishment and, dependence of labor are abnormal conditions resulting from restrictions and usurpations, and that instead of accepting protection, what labor should demand is freedom. That those who advocate any extension of freedom choose to go no further than suits their own special purpose is no reason why freedom itself should be distrusted.

  Henry George

  Special, Purpose, Abnormal

  Henry George (2006). “Protection Or Free Trade”, p.22, Cosimo, Inc.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nations sometimes flourish by denying the crimes that brought them into being. Only when the original invasion, occupation, extermination or usurpation has been safely thrust into the political unconscious can sovereignty feel secure.

  Terry Eagleton

  Political, Occupation, Invasion

  31 Copy quote

• I have discovered that a famed familiarity in great ones is a note of certain usurpation on the less; for great and popular men feign themselves to be servants to others to make those slaves to them.

  Ben Jonson

  Men, Slave, Popularity

  Ben Jonson, William Gifford (1857). “The Works of Ben Jonson”, p.875

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are souls that are incurable and lost to the rest of society. Deprive them of one means of folly, they will invent ten thousand others. They will create subtler, wilder methods, methods that are absolutely DESPERATE. Nature herself is fundamentally antisocial, it is only by a usurpation of powers that the organized body of society opposes the natural inclination of humanity.

  Antonin Artaud

  Mean, Soul, Humanity

  Antonin Artaud (1988). “Antonin Artaud, Selected Writings”, p.99, Univ of California Press

  88 Copy quote

  Show source

• This doctrine ['that the condition of man cannot be ameliorated, that what has been must ever be, and that to secure ourselves where we are we must tread with awful reverence in the footsteps of our fathers']is the genuine fruit of the alliance between Church and State, the tenants of which finding themselves but too well in their present condition, oppose all advances which might unmask their usurpations and monopolies of honors, wealth and power, and fear every change as endangering the comforts they now hold.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Father, Men, Honor

  Thomas Jefferson (1984). “Jefferson: Writings”, p.570, Library of America

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermingle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation.

  James Madison

  Government, Religion, Shadow

  4 Copy quote

• I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations; but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have, more frequently than any other cause, produced despotism.

  James Madison

  Believe, Rights, Government

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Men, Injury, Mankind

  Declaration of Sentiments, First Woman's Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, N.Y., 19 - 20 July 1848

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Government, Liberty, Citizens

  Ezra Taft Benson (1969). “An enemy hath done this”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• That the greatest security of the people, against the encroachments and usurpations of their superiors, is to keep the Spirit of Liberty constantly awake, is an undeniable truth

  Edmund Burke

  People, Liberty, Spirit

  Edmund Burke, Arthur P.I. Samuels (2014). “The Early Life Correspondence and Writings of The Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke”, p.338, Cambridge University Press

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue this part [the necessary and proper clause] of the Constitution and exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them . . . the success of the usurpation will depend on the executive and judiciary departments, which are to expound and give effect to the legislative acts; and in a last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people, who can by the elections of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers.

  James Madison

  Exercise, People, Giving

  53 Copy quote

• Nature has poured forth all things for the common use of all men. And God has ordained that all things should be produced that there might be food in common for all, and that the earth should be in the common possession of all. Nature created common rights, but usurpation has transformed them into private rights.

  Ambrose

  Men, Rights, Use

  9 Copy quote

• Let no one imagine that he will lose anything of human dignity by this voluntary sell-out of his all to his God. He does not by this degrade himself as a man; rather he finds his right place of high honor as one made in the image of his Creator. His deep disgrace lay in his moral derangement, his unnatural usurpation of the place of God. His honor will be proved by restoring again that stolen throne. In exalting God over all, he finds his own highest honor upheld.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Men, Honor, Doe

  13 Copy quote

• Fundamentalist religion is the most pervasive vision of central planning, though many fundamentalists may oppose human central planning as a usurpation or "playing God.This is consistent with the fundamentalist vision of an unconstrained God and a highly constrained man.

  Thomas Sowell

  Men, Vision, Society

  Thomas Sowell (2007). “A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles”, p.49, Basic Books

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• All the forms of civil polity have been tried by mankind, except one, and that seems to have been reserved in Providence to be realized in America. Most of the states, of all ages ...have been founded in rapacity, usurpation, and injustice; so that in the contests recorded in history ...the military history of all nations being but a description of the wars and invasions of the mutual robbers and devastators of the human race.

  Ezra Stiles

  Military, War, Race

  6 Copy quote

• I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society, and which does not cower to human opinion: Which refuses to be the slave or tool of the many or of the few, and guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world.

  William Ellery Channing

  Mind, Doe, Tools

  9 Copy quote

• All discourse of which others cannot partake is not only an irksome usurpation of the time devoted to pleasure and entertainment, but, what never fails to excite resentment, an insolent assertion of superiority, and a triumph over less enlightened understandings. The pedant is, therefore, not only heard with weariness but malignity; and those who conceive themselves insulted by his knowledge never fail to tell with acrimony how injudiciously it was exerted.

  Samuel Johnson

  Understanding, Triumph, Acrimony

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.196

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• As the feudal system retained many of the elements of slavery, modified by the traditions, customs, and practices of the primitive communities, so capitalism retained the essential usurpations of feudalism, though professing to guard personal freedom, and to observe equity between the owner and the occupier of the land, the employer and the employed.

  Joshua K. Ingalls

  Land, Practice, Community

  4 Copy quote

• ...I believe it is woman's right to have a voice in all the laws and regulations by which she is to be governed; whether in Churchor State; and that the present arrangements of society, on these points, are a violation of human rights, a rank usurpation of power, a violent seizure and confiscation of what is sacredly and inalienably hers--and thus inflicting upon woman outrageous wrongs, working mischief incalculable in the social circle, and in its influence on the world producing only evil, and that continually.

  Angelina Grimke

  Believe, Rights, Law

  Sarah Grimke, Angelina Grimke (2015). “On Slavery and Abolitionism: Essays and Letters”, p.191, Penguin

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Questions of such gravity go down to the very foundations of the government. If the provisions of the Constitution can be set aside by an act of Congress, where is the course of usurpation to end?

  Stephen Johnson Field

  Government, Political, Foundation

  4 Copy quote

• The continuation of authority has frequently proved the undoing of democratic governments. Repeated elections are essential to the system of popular governments, because there is nothing so dangerous as to suffer power to be vested for a long time in one citizen. The people become accustomed to obeying him, and he becomes accustomed to commanding, hence the origin of usurpation and tyranny.

  Simon Bolivar

  Government, Long, People

  "The World's Great Speeches". Book edited by Lewis Copeland and Lawrence Lamm, 1958.

  318 Copy quote

  Show source