Best Constitution Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 30

“Today, no less than five Supreme Court justices are on record, either through their opinions or speeches (or both), that they will consult foreign law and foreign-court rulings for guidance in certain circumstances. Of course, policymakers are free to consult whatever they want, but not justices. They're limited to the Constitution and the law.”

Want Today Law Certain Courses Justice Opinion Records Five Circumstances Speech Constitution Court Supreme Guidance Supreme Court Ruling Supreme Court Justice Court Justice

Author:Mark Levin

“When you want genuine music -- music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whisky, go right through you like Brandreth's pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose, -- when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo!”

Want Whole Home Break Glory Constitution Genuine Piano Quarters Feathers Pills Pins Geese Break Out Invoke Whisky Banjos Pimples Measles

Book:Early Tales and Sketches 1864-1869

Source: Early Tales and Sketches 1864-1869

“[quoting someone else] the American constitution is a document designed by geniuses to be eventually interpreted by idiots”

Genius Constitution Idiot Documents Quoting American Constitution

Author:Joseph J. Ellis

“Judicial activists are nothing short of radicals in robes--contemptuous of the rule of law, subverting the Constitution at will, and using their public trust to impose their policy preferences on society. In fact, no radical political movement has been more effective in undermining our system of government than the judiciary. And with each Supreme Court term, we hold our collective breath hoping the justices will do no further damage, knowing full well they will disappoint. Such is the nature of judicial tyranny.”

Source: Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America

“But Shakespeare one gets acquainted with without knowing how. It is a part of an Englishman's constitution. His thoughts and beauties are so spread abroad that one touches them everywhere; one is intimate with him by instinct. No man of any brain can open at a good part of one of his plays without falling into the flow of his meaning immediately.”

Men Play Fall Brain Knowing Flow Constitution Instinct Spread Intimate Englishmen

Author:Jane Austen

“No: I am not tired. I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely." ~ Sherlock Holmes”

Feelings Remember Constitution Tired Curious Idleness Holmes

Author:Arthur Conan Doyle

“The inferior position of blacks, the exclusion of Indians from the new society, the establishment of supremacy for the rich and powerful in the new nation--all this was already settled in the colonies by the time of the Revolution. With the English out of the way, it could now be put on paper, solidified, regularized, made legitimate by the Constitution of the United States.”

Source: A People's History of the United States

“The Constitution. . . illustrates the complexity of the American system: that it serves the interests of a wealthy elite, but also does enough for small property owners, for middle-income mechanics and farmers, to build a broad base of support. The slightly prosperous people who make up this base of support are buffers against the blacks, the Indians, the very poor whites. They enable the elite to keep control with a minimum of coercion, a maximum of law--all made palatable by the fanfare of patriotism and unity.”

Source: A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present

“The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy.”

Should Doe Character Government Form Attention Democracy Youth Citizens Direct Constitution Harm Suits Preserves Neglect Peculiar Forms Of Government Legislators Oligarchy

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle

“Experience teaches that for most people there is a limit beyond which their constitution cannot comply with the demands of civilization. All who wish to reach a higher standard than their constitution will allow, fall victims to neurosis. It would have been better for them if they could have remained less "perfect".”

People Ifs Has Beens Fall Wish Perfect Teach Higher Civilization Demand Limits Standards Constitution Victim Neurosis Higher Standards

Book:Sexuality and The Psychology of Love

Source: Sexuality and The Psychology of Love

“That's why I believe in a Constitution which separates church from state. I've seen what happens when they get in cahoots.”

Believe States Happens I Believe Church Constitution I Believe In

Author:Craig Ferguson

“That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.”

People Said Home Would Be Night Enemy Streets Television Constitution Fingers Temporary They Said Dystopia Suspended Watching Television Rioting

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Most people, when they move, well they just move depending on whatever's around them. At this very moment, as I am writing, Constitution the cat is going by with her tummy dragging close to the floor. This cat has absolutely nothing constructive to do in life and still she is heading toward something, probably an armchair.”

People Writing Wells Stills Moments Moving Cat Constitution Constructive Headings Absolutely Nothing Armchairs

Author:Muriel Barbery

“Last comes the class of persons, of nervous organization and enfeebled vigour, whose sensual appetite craves highly seasoned dishes, men of a hectic, over-stimulated constitution. Their eyes almost invariably hanker after that most irritating and morbid of colours, with its artificial splendours and feverish acrid gleams,-orange.”

Men Persons Eye Lasts Class Organization Constitution Nervous Sensual Colour Appetite Artificial Dishes Orange Crave Irritating Morbid Gleam Splendour Hectic

Book:Against the Grain: (À rebours)

Source: Against the Grain: (À rebours)

“Our ideals of freedom, set forth and realized in our Constitution, are our greatest export to the world.”

World Ideals Constitution

Author:Robert Byrd

“The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions”

Source: The beauties of the Hon. Daniel Webster: selected and arranged, with a critical essay on his genius and writings

“I would have to have people totally committed to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of this United States. And many of the Muslims, they are not totally dedicated to this country. They are not dedicated to our Constitution. Many of them are trying to force Sharia law on the people of this country.”

People Trying Country States Law Force United United States Constitution Independence Committed Dedicated Declaration Declaration Of Independence Sharia Sharia Law

Author:Herman Cain

“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.”

Mind Has Beens Religion Religious Christianity Atheism Century Ignorance Pride Constitution Fruit Atheist Noble Trials Enterprise Bigotry Establishment Superstitions Fifteen Secular Persecution Founding Bondage Church And State Separation Of Church And State Our Founding Fathers Founding Fathers Christian Philosophy Of Religion Us Founding Fathers Clergy Indolence Founding Fathers Religion Separation Between Church And State Shackles Founding Fathers Religious Religion God Federalist Founding Fathers Anti Religion Founding Fathers Of America Founding America Federalist Papers American Founding Fathers Founding Fathers Atheist Religious Philosophy Deism Christianity From Founding Fathers Religion And Politics Christian Atheist Religion Christian Philosophy And Religion Religion And Government Faith Religion Servility Religious Persecution Religious Bigotry Christianity And Government Christian Persecution

Author:James Madison

“In the blood-heat of pursuing the enemy, many people are forgetting what we are fighting for. We are fighting for our hard-won liberty and freedom; for our Constitution and the due processes of our laws; and for the right to differ in ideas, religion and politics. I am convinced that in your zeal to fight against our enemies, you, too, have forgotten what you are fighting for.”

Source: My Life in France

“Perhaps the most important thing I learned was about democracy, that democracy is not our government, our constitution, our legal structure. Too often they are enemies of democracy.”

Important Government Enemy Democracy Constitution Important Things Structure Law School

Book:You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

Source: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

“And yet we have what purports, or professes, or is claimed, to be a contract—the Constitution—made eighty years ago, by men who are now all dead, and who never had any power to bind us, but which (it is claimed) has nevertheless bound three generations of men, consisting of many millions, and which (it is claimed) will be binding upon all the millions that are to come; but which nobody ever signed, sealed, delivered, witnessed, or acknowledged; and which few persons, compared with the whole number that are claimed to be bound by it, have ever read, or even seen, or ever will read, or see.”

Men Years Persons Made Whole Three Numbers Millions Generations Years Ago Constitution Bounds Contracts Nevertheless Eighty Binding Three Generations

Book:The collected works of Lysander Spooner

Source: The collected works of Lysander Spooner

“Revealingly, the central function of the Constitution as law--the supreme law--was to impose limitations not on the behavior of ordinary citizens but on the federal government. The government, and those who ran it, were not placed outside the law, but expressly targeted by it. Indeed, the Bill of Rights is little more than a description of the lines that the most powerful political officials are barred from crossing, even if they have the power to do so and even when the majority of citizens might wish them to do so.”

“You form a society: that limits you. Adopt a name, and you've limited yourself again; draw up a constitution and bylaws and you've made a groove, a rut, that hampers your growth. You think you can fix your course and move straight along it. But sometimes the important thing is to strike out sidewise.”

Thinking Made Important Sometimes Moving Form Courses Names Growth Limits Draws Constitution Important Things Strikes Groove Ruts Hamper Bylaws

Author:Robert Henri

“In a well-functioning democracy, the state constitution is considered more important than God's holy book, whichever holy book that may be, and God matters only in your private life.”

Wells May Important Book Matter States Democracy Holy Constitution Private Life Holy Books

Book:The Caged Virgin: A Muslim Woman's Cry for Reason

Source: The Caged Virgin: A Muslim Woman's Cry for Reason

“Our possibilities of happiness are already restricted by our constitution. Unhappiness is much less difficult to experience. We are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed to decay and dissolution and which cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations to other men. The suffering which comes from this last source is perhaps more painful to us than any other.”

Source: Civilization and Its Discontents

“There is no greater power on this earth than story.” Will paced the length of the room. “People think boundaries and borders build nations. Nonsense—words do. Beliefs, declarations, constitutions—words. Stories. Myths. Lies. Promises. History.” Will grabbed the sheaf of newspaper clippings he kept in a stack on his desk. “This, and these”—he gestured to the library’s teeming shelves—“they’re a testament to the country’s rich supernatural history.”

“People think boundaries and borders build nations. Nonsense-words do. Beliefs, declarations, constitutions-words. Stories. Myths. Lies. Promises. History”

People Thinking Stories Lying Belief Nations Promise Constitution Myth Boundaries Borders Nonsense Declaration

Author:Libba Bray

“Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Source: Little Brother

“The constitution does not recognize different classes of citizenship based on time spent living in the country. I am a citizen, with the same rights as your son, or you. As a citizen, and as a student, I am protesting the tone of this lesson as racist, intolerant, and xenophobic.”

Doe Different Country Class Rights Students Son Citizens Lessons Constitution Tone Racist Citizenship Your Son Time Spent Living In The Country

Book:Speak

Source: Speak

“If I find the constitution being misused, I shall be the first to burn it.”

Ifs Firsts Law Constitution Misused

Author:B. R. Ambedkar

“Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until they saturate you. Read and reread them…digest them. Let them go into your very self. Peruse a good book several times and make notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books he has merely skimmed. Little learning and much pride comes from hasty reading. Some men are disabled from thinking by their putting meditation away for the sake of much reading. In reading let your motto be ‘much not many.”

Thinking Men Littles Book Self Reading Meditation Students Masters Pride Constitution Twenties Notes Sake Analysis Affected Motto Good Book Disabled Hasty

Author:Charles Spurgeon

“You must purge yourself before finding faults in others. When you see a mistake in somebody else, try to find if you are making the same mistake. This is the way to take judgment and to turn it into improvement. Do not look at others' bodies with envy or with superiority. All people are born with different constitutions. Never compare with others. Each one's capacities are a function of his or her internal strength. Know your capacities and continually improve upon them.”

“Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We believe in the righteousness of the cause, which it is our privilege to espouse. We have an abiding faith in the mercy of the Almighty God, and we have firm faith in the British Constitution. That being so, we should fail in our duty if we wrote anything with a view to hurt.”

Source: 1903-1905

“The chief aim of their constitution is that, whenever public needs permit, all citizens should be free, so far as possible, to withdraw their time and energy from the service of the body, and devote themselves to the freedom and culture of the mind. For that, they think, is the real happiness of life.”

Thinking Needs Should Mind Real Body Time Culture Energy Citizens Constitution Aim Chiefs Permit Life Happiness Time And Energy Life Time Real Happiness

Author:Thomas More

“The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”

“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.”

“To be patriotic is to be able to question government policy in times of crisis. To be patriotic is to stand up for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution in times of uncertainty and insecurity. To be patriotic is to speak up against the powerful in defense of the weak and the voiceless. To be patriotic is to be willing to pay the price to preserve our freedoms, dignity, and rights. To be patriotic is to challenge the abuses of the PATRIOT Act.”

“What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.”

“It is necessary to curb the power of government. This is the task of all constitutions, bills of rights and laws. This is the meaning of all struggles which men have fought for liberty.”

Men Government Law Freedom Liberty Struggle Rights Tasks Constitution Bills Bill Of Rights Curb

Book:Human Action

Source: Human Action

“We have come to world leadership because our people have had the opportunity to develop this nation under a government and a Constitution that gave them political freedom and encouraged initiative, enterprise, responsibility, industry and thrift. Freedom and achievement are not unrelated. This nation has become one of history's finest illustrations of how a people can enrich life and raise their whole level of economic well-being when they are given justice, liberty and incentive.”

“The Constitution of America only guarantees pursuit of happiness-you have to catch up with it yourself. Fortunately, happiness is something that depends not on position but on disposition, and life is what you make it.”

Life America Happiness Life Is Position Depends Constitution Pursuit Guarantees Disposition Pursuit Of Happiness

Author:Gill Robb Wilson

“What are wanted ...are not Constitutions and Revolutions, nor all sorts of Conferences and Congresses, nor the many ingenious devices for submarine navigation and aerial navigation, nor powerful explosives, nor all sorts of conveniences to add to the enjoyment of the rich, ruling classes... but one thing only is needful: the knowledge of the simple and clear truth ...that for our life one law is valid - the law of love, which brings the highest happiness to every individual as well as to all mankind.”

“If congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given them to use themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations.”

Ifs Use Government Individual Given Issues Paper Constitution Historical Congress Corporations Banking Bankers New World Order Federal Reserve Monetary System Central Banking Paper Money

Author:Andrew Jackson

“I think there are only three things that America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization: the Constitution, jazz music and baseball. They're the three most beautifully designed things this culture has ever produced.”

Thinking Years America Culture Three Known Music Study Civilization Baseball Constitution Jazz Musical Three Things Jazz Music

Author:Gerald Early

“When I die, I desire no better winding sheet than the Stars and Stripes, and no softer pillow than the Constitution of my country.”

Country Desire Dies Stars Constitution Patriotism Patriotic Patriot Sheets Pillow Stripes American Patriotic American Patriot Inspirational Patriotic

Author:Andrew Johnson

“Patriotism threatens free speech with death. It is infuriated by thoughtful hesitation, constructive criticism of our leaders and pleas for peace. It despises people of foreign birth. It has specifically blamed homosexuals, feminists and the American Civil Liberties Union. In other words, the American flag stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry, sexism, homophobia and shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder. Whom are we calling terrorists here?”

“In practice, US officials seem to know better than to indulge in the patriotic myth that our constitution is the greatest system of government ever devised.”

Knows Seems Government Practice Constitution Myth Officials Patriotism Patriotic Indulge Indulge In Systems Of Government

Author:Matthew Yglesias

“I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing.”

Source: Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson

“To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”

“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.”

People Law Constitution Sympathy Organize

Author:Al Smith

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Constitution Quotes