Home / Topics / Constitution Quotes

Constitution Quotes

Browse 2680 quotes about Constitution.

Constitution Quotes

“Tactics and strategies ought to be based on what the real world is, and we do not have the political power to do this. We're not about to shut the government down over the fact that we cannot, only controlling one house of Congress, tell the president that we're not going to fund any portion of [Obamacare]. Because we can't do that.”

“We want [government] down to the size to where it would fit in a bathtub, and then it could worry about what we were up to.”

Want Government Father Politics Money Worry Democracy Policy Fit Taxes Constitution Size Ideology Free Speech Bathtubs

Author:Grover Norquist

“For an American to be patriotic is to be loyal to the principles of our Constitution, and the First Amendment. The truth is that the policies of the government is sometimes in conflict with that. In our country, patriotism should not be defined as obedience to an authority.”

Should Firsts Country Sometimes Government Principles Policy Truth Is Conflict Authority Constitution Our Country Defined Obedience Patriotic Loyal Amendments First Amendment

Author:Daniel Ellsberg

“Under the constitution, there was never meant to be a federal police force. Even an FBI limited only to investigations was not accepted until this century. Yet today, fueled by the federal government's misdirected war on drugs, radical environmentalism, and the aggressive behavior of the nanny state, we have witnessed the massive buildup of a virtual army of armed regulators prowling the States where they have no legal authority. The sacrifice of individual responsibility and the concept of local government by the majority of American citizens has permitted the army of bureaucrats to thrive.”

“The purpose of the right to bear arms is twofold; to allow individuals to protect themselves and their families, and to ensure a body of armed citizenry from which a militia could be drawn, whether that militia's role was to protect the nation, or to protect the people from a tyrannical government.”

People Body Government Purpose Individual Nations Roles Arms Bears Protect Constitution Defense Right To Bear Arms Militia Citizenry

Author:Glenn Reynolds

“That the people have an original right to establish, for their future government, such principles as, in their opinion, shall most conduce to their own happiness, is the basis, on which the whole American fabric has been erected.... The principles, therefore, so established, are deemed fundamental. And as the authority, from which they proceed, is supreme ... they are designed to be permanent.... The powers of the legislature are defined, and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the constitution is written.”

People May Has Beens Whole Government Opinion Principles Written Limits Authority Bases Constitution Originals Fundamentals Forgotten Supreme Defined Permanent Fabric Mistaken Legislature

Author:John Marshall

“We start with first principles. The Constitution creates a Federal Government of enumerated powers.”

Firsts Government Principles Power Constitution Federal Government

Author:William Rehnquist

“The first ten amendments were proposed and adopted largely because of fear that Government might unduly interfere with prized individual liberties. The people wanted and demanded a Bill of Rights written into their Constitution. The amendments embodying the Bill of Rights were intended to curb all branches of the Federal Government in the fields touched by the amendments-Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.”

“Every so often we hear people clamor for a change. Let's change the Constitution, change the form of Government, change everything for better or worse except to change the only thing that needs changing first: The human heart and our standard of success and human values.”

People Needs Firsts Humans Heart Government Form Values Change Standards Constitution Human Heart Forms Of Government Human Values Clamor

Author:William J. H. Boetcker

“I love the Constitution and government of this land, but I hate the damned rascals that administer the government.”

Government Hate Land Internet Constitution I Hate Free Speech Rascals

Author:Brigham Young

“The wise and just man will always feel that he stands on his own feet; that he imparts strength to the state, not receives security from it; and if all went down, he and such as he would quite easily combine in a new and better constitution.”

Ifs Men Feels States Government Wise Society Feet Security Strength Constitution Impart

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)

“Government employees are public servants and prohibited by the Constitution from inhibiting religious freedom, that is a far cry from sneaking around and into a church and acting like KGB agents.”

Government Church Religious Freedom Acting Cry Constitution Agents Servant Employee Religious Freedom Public Servants Kgb Government Employees Sneaking Around

Author:Mathew Staver

“Chief Justice Roberts has expressly said that the Constitution and the government should be colorblind, he sees no difference between government action that discriminates against minorities and one that benefits minorities.”

Should Said Government Action Differences Justice Benefits Constitution Chiefs Minorities Chief Justice

Author:Erwin Chemerinsky

“One of the [Million Mom] marchers said 'the hands that rock the cradle rule this nation.' I thought, 'no Madame, the hands that rock the cradle rule our families and governments and corporations. The hands that wrote the Constitution rule this nation'.”

Said Hands Government Nations Millions Rocks Mom Constitution Corporations Our Family Cradle Second Ammendment

Author:Charlton Heston

“I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”

“The people who started the American government, the founders of the Constitution, didn't like political parties but they were forced to start them. Nobody ever created political parties in England, they evolved. And there do tend to be two general tendencies that focus around how much government you think you need.”

People Thinking Needs Two Government Political Party Focus Constitution England Tendencies Founders Political Parties American Government

Author:Barney Frank

“The Constitution, in addition to delegating certain enumerated powers to Congress, places whole areas outside the reach of Congress' regulatory authority. The First Amendment, for example, is fittingly celebrated for preventing Congress from "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion or "abridging the freedom of speech." The Second Amendment similarly appears to contain an express limitation on the government's authority.”

Firsts Whole Government Certain Example Exercise Speech Authority Areas Constitution Congress Limitation Amendments Freedom Of Speech First Amendment Second Amendment Preventing

Author:Clarence Thomas

“To take a single step beyond the boundaries specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to definition.”

Source: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont

“Government has no right to make itself a party in any debates respecting the principles or mode of forming or of changing, constitutions. It is not for the benefit of those who exercise the powers of government, that constitutions, and the governments issuing from them, are established.”

Government Political Politics Party Principles Exercise Benefits Constitution Debate

Book:Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution

Source: Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution

“Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

Source: The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784

“The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now. They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.”

“Were I to define the British constitution, therefore, I should say, it is a limited monarchy, or a mixture of the three forms of government commonly known in the schools, reserving as much of the monarchical splendor, the aristocratical independency, and the democratical freedom, as are necessary that each of these powers may have a control, both in legislation and execution, over the other two, for the preservation of the subject's liberty.”

Source: The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

“There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution.”

Two Government Political Evil Party Leader Constitution Humble Opposition Division Republic Dread Political Parties Apprehension Two Party System Great Party Opposition Parties Greatest Political

Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

Source: The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

“A constitution founded on these principles introduces knowledge among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dignity becoming freemen; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor, sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them sober, industrious, and frugal.”

Source: The Works of John Adams Vol. 4: Novanglus, Thoughts on Government, Defence of the Constitution I

“The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every blessing of society depend so much upon an upright and skillful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, as both should be checks upon that.”

“To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, counties or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.”

“There is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so; for the true idea of a republic is "an empire of laws, and not of men." That, as a republic is the best of governments, so that particular arrangement of the powers of society, or in other words, that form of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the law, is the best of republics.”

Men Ideas Government Form Law Particular Republican Constitution Valuable British Secure Empires Republic Execution Arrangements Forms Of Government Republican Government British Constitution

Author:John Adams

“The most sensible and jealous people are so little attentive to government that there are no instances of resistance until repeated, multiplied oppressions have placed it beyond a doubt that their rulers had formed settled plans to deprive them of their liberties; not to oppress an individual or a few, but to break down the fences of a free constitution, and deprive the people at large of all share in the government, and all the checks by which it is limited.”

People Littles Government Individual Liberty Break Doubt Plans Share Revolution Constitution Checks Resistance Oppression Instance Jealous Sensible Rulers Fence Breaking Down Jealous People

Author:John Adams

“If an angel should be winged from Heaven, on an errand of mercy to our country, the first accents that would glow on his lips would be, Beware! Be cautious! You have everything to lose; nothing to gain. We live under the only government that ever existed which was framed by the unrestrained and deliberate consultations of the people. Miracles do not cluster. That which has happened but once in six thousand years cannot be expected to happen often. Such a government, once gone, might leave a void, to be filled, for ages, with revolution and tumult, riot and despotism.”

“I am committed against every thing which in my judgment, may weaken, endanger, or destroy (the Constitution) ... and especially against all extension of Executive power; and I am committed against any attempt to rule the free people of this country by the power and the patronage of the Government itself.”

People May Country Government Judgment Constitution Committed Executives Extensions Patronage Executive Power

Book:The works

Source: The works

“If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men. If this definition is just, the British constitution is nothing more or less than a republic, in which the king is first magistrate. This office being hereditary, and being possessed of such ample and splendid prerogatives, is no objection to the government's being a republic, as long as it is bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend.”

Source: The Works of John Adams Vol. 4: Novanglus, Thoughts on Government, Defence of the Constitution I

“No power but Congress can declare war; but what is the value of this constitutional provision, if the President of his own authority may make such military movements as must bring on war? ... [T]hese remarks originate purely in a desire to maintain the powers of government as they are established by the Constitution between the different departments, and hope that, whether we have conquests or no conquests, war or no war, peace or no peace, we shall yet preserve, in its integrity and strength, the Constitution of the United States.”

“The divine science of government is the science of social happiness, and the blessings of society depend entirely on the constitutions of government.”

Government Social Divine Depends Blessing Constitution

Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

Source: The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

“Constitutions are violated, and it would be absurd to expect the federal government to enforce the Constitution against itself. If the very federal judges the Constitution was partly intended to restrain were the ones exclusively charged with enforcing it, then "America possesses only the effigy of a Constitution." The states, the very constituents of the Union, had to do the enforcing.”

Ifs States Government Would Be America Judging Constitution Unions Absurd Federal Government Constituents Federal Judges

Author:John Taylor

“If the States were not left to leave the Union when their rights were interfered with, the government would have been National, but the Convention refused to baptize it by that name.”

Ifs Has Beens States Government Law Names Left Rights Constitution Independence Unions Republic Conventions Sovereignty

Author:Daniel Webster

“When you are serving volunteer professional military, you take an oath to the Constitution, not to a policy or a president and you swear to obey the lawful orders of the democratically elected government. And so at the end of the day you could table your personal political views and do your job.”

Ends Government Jobs Political Order President Views Military Policy Constitution Tables The End Of The Day Serving Swear Volunteer Oath Political View

Author:Nathaniel Fick

“I do not lift my voice against the great and glorious Government guaranteed to every citizen by the Constitution, but against those corrupt administrators who trample the Constitution and just laws under their feet.”

Government Law Voice Feet Citizens Constitution Lifts Glorious Administrators

Book:Journal of Discourses

Source: Journal of Discourses

“A government on the principles on which constitutional governments arising out of society are established, cannot have the right of altering itself. If it had, it would be arbitrary. It might make itself what it pleased; and wherever such a right is set up, it shows there is no constitution.”

Ifs Shows Government Might Would Be Principles Constitution Arbitrary Constitutional Government

Book:The Political Writings of Thomas Paine ...: Prospects on the Rubicon. Rights of man, part I. Rights of man, part II. Letter to the authors of the Republican. Letter to the Abbe Sieyes. Address to the addressers. Letters to Lord Onslow. Dissertation on the first principles of government. Speech delivered in the French National convention. Letter to Mr. Secretary Dundas. The decline and fall of the English system of finance. Letter to the people of France. Reasons for preserving the life of Louis

Source: The Political Writings of Thomas Paine ...: Prospects on the Rubicon. Rights of man, part I. Rights of man, part II. Letter to the authors of the Republican. Letter to the Abbe Sieyes. Address to the addressers. Letters to Lord Onslow. Dissertation on the first principles of government. Speech delivered in the French National convention. Letter to Mr. Secretary Dundas. The decline and fall of the English system of finance. Letter to the people of France. Reasons for preserving the life of Louis

“I can't tell Black people to fight a war that is Israel's war. What kind of leader will you be, or should I be, to allow these babies Black, white and brown, to fight Israel's war, because Zionists dominate the government of the United States of America and her banking system.”

People Should Kind I Can War States Government America Religion Fighting Black Church Religious White United Leader Christianity United States Baby Constitution Israel Separation Brown Black People Founders Should I Secular United States Of America Founding Banking Church And State Separation Of Church And State Our Founding Fathers Religious Freedom War On Drugs Founding Fathers Christian State Government Zionist Us Founding Fathers Bigots Bearing Arms Founding Fathers Religion Separation Between Church And State Founding Fathers Religious Christian Church Constitution Of The United States Founding Fathers Anti Religion Founding Fathers Of America Founding America Founding Fathers Atheist Deism Black White Banking System Christianity From Founding Fathers Christian Atheist Religion Christian Christian Father United States Government Christian Heritage Us Constitution Founding Fathers Democracy Religion And Government Christian Right God Delusion Amendment 1 Pledge Of Allegiance Deist God And Country Religious Bigotry God We Trust Secular Society Hate Religion Christianity And Government

Author:Louis Farrakhan

“Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires - a wiretap requires a court order. [...] Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. [...]”

“The constitution has divided the powers of government into three branches, Legislative, Executive and Judiciary, lodging each with a distinct magistracy. The Legislative it has given completely to the Senate and House of Representatives. It has declared that the Executive powers shall be vested in the President, submitting special articles of it to a negative by the Senate, and it has vested the Judiciary power in the courts of justice, with certain exceptions also in favor of the Senate.”

Source: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence. Reports and opinions while secretary of state

“The primary function of the government is - and here I am quoting directly from the U.S. Constitution - 'to spew out paper.'”

Government Paper Function Constitution Primaries Here I Am Quoting

Book:Dave Barry in Cyberspace

Source: Dave Barry in Cyberspace

“The states have authority to interpret the Constitution, enforce it, and protect the people from violations of it by the federal government In the first place, there is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution, or which gives them any greater latitude in this respect than may be claimed by the courts of every State.”

People Giving Firsts May States Government Law Spirit Greater Plans Protect Authority Constitution Court Empowering Consideration Federal Government Violation Syllables Latitude

Author:Alexander Hamilton

“Even government by the consent of the governed, as in our own Constitution, must be limited in its power to act against its people; so that there may be no interference with the right to worship, or with the security of the home; no arbitrary imposition of pains or penalties by officials high or low; no restrictions on the freedom of men to seek education or work or opportunity of any kind, so that each man may become all he is capable of becoming.”

Source: RFK: collected speeches

“Popular and democratic government is the only constitution which suits France, and all those who are worthy of the name of men.”

Men Government Names Constitution Democratic Worthy Suits France Democratic Government

Author:Camille Desmoulins

“Some men look at Constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in Government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead.”

“You will see the constitution of the United States almost destroyed. It will hang like a thread.... A terrible revolution will take place in the land of America.... [T]he land will be left without a Supreme Government,... [Mormonism] will have gathered strength, sending out Elders to gather the honest in heart... to stand by the Constitution of the United States.... In these days... God will set up a Kingdom, never to be thrown down.... [T]he whole of America will be made the Zion of God.”

“The First Amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people from religion; that amendment was written to protect religion from government tyranny. . . But now we're told our children have no right to pray in school. Nonsense. The pendulum has swung too far toward intolerance against genuine religious freedom. It is time to redress the balance.”

“Cutting corners no doubt makes the job easier for the government, but making the government's job easier is rarely a priority. Preserving the Constitution, fighting off the nibblers and chippers, even nibblers and chippers with good intentions, was once regarded by conservatives as the first duty of the citizen. It still is.”

Firsts Stills Government Jobs Fighting Doubt Cutting Duty Citizens Easier Constitution Intention Corners Priorities No Doubt Good Intentions Cutting Corners

Author:Wesley Pruden

“How to check these unconstitutional invasions of rights by the Federal judiciary? Not by impeachment in the first instance, but by a strong protestation of both houses of Congress that such and such doctrines advanced by the Supreme Court are contrary to the Constitution; and if afterwards they relapse into the same heresies, impeach and set the whole adrift. For what was the government divided into three branches, but that each should watch over the others and oppose their usurpations?”