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Constitution Quotes

“It took us in this country 11 years to get from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution.”

Years Country Constitution Independence Declaration Declaration Of Independence

Author:Mitch McConnell

“Americans - not just starting thirty years ago but going back to the beginning, when we were rebelling against King George - we've always been of two minds about the government, which is why the framers wrote the Constitution the way they did.”

Way Years Mind Two Government Kings Years Ago Constitution Starting Thirty Thirty Years Framers Two Minds

Author:William J. Clinton

“I will not step down, I will not resign, ... I will work to the end of my term in office under the constitution. In the year 2000, there will be presidential elections under the constitution and I will not run in those elections.”

Years Ends Running Term Steps Office Constitution Election Presidential Presidential Election

Author:Boris Yeltsin

“During the last dozen years the tales of suppression of free assemblage, free press, and free speech, by local authorities or the State operating under martial law have been so numerous as to have become an old story. They are attacked at the instigation of an economically and socially powerful class, itself enjoying to the full the advantages of free communications, but bent on denying them to the class it holds within its power.”

“In America, one of the great liberal documents of the world is the Declaration of Independence. One of the great conservative documents of the world is the Constitution of the United States. We need both documents to build a country. One to get it started - liberal. And the other to help maintain the structure over the years - conservative.”

“Of course, such judicial misconstruction theoretically can be cured by constitutional amendment. But the period of gestation of a constitutional amendment, or of any law reform, is reckoned in decades usually; in years, at least. And, after all, as the Court itself asserted in overruling the minimum-wage cases, it may not be the Constitution that was at fault.”

Years May Law Courses Cases Periods Constitution Court Faults Decades Reform Amendments Minimum Judicial Minimum Wage Constitutional Amendments Gestation Gestation Period

Author:Robert H. Jackson

“It has been more than 60 years since the constitution was put in place. There are provisions in the constitution that no longer suit the times. Since the constitution was promulgated, we've seen the emergence of new values, such as privacy, the environment and so on, which need to be incorporated.”

Needs Years Has Beens Values Environment Constitution Suits Privacy Provision Emergence

Author:Shinzo Abe

“I cannot understand the logic of those who have been deliberately and mischievously propagating that the Constitution of Pakistan will not be based on Islamic Sharia. Islamic principles today are as much applicable to life as they were 1300 years ago.”

Years Has Beens Today Principles Years Ago Logic Constitution Islamic Pakistan Sharia

Author:Muhammad Ali Jinnah

“Creativity builds upon the public domain. The battle that we're fighting now is about whether the public domain will continue to be fed by creative works after their copyright expires. That has been our tradition but that tradition has been perverted in the last generation. We're trying to use the Constitution to reestablish what has always been taken for granted--that the public domain would grow each year with new creative work.”

“This [the U.S. Constitution] is likely to be administered for a course of years and then end in despotism... when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.”

People Needs Years Ends Government Courses Constitution Incapable Despotism

Author:Benjamin Franklin

“Our soldiers did not go to some foreign country and risk their lives in vain and defend our Constitution so that decades later you can tell me it's a living document ever changing and is open to interpretation. The guys who wrote it were light years ahead of anyone today, and they meant what they said - now leave the document alone, or there's going to be trouble.”

Years Said Country Light Today Guy Risk Trouble Atheism Constitution Soldier Positive Atheism Decades Vain Interpretation Documents They Said Foreign Countries Light Years

Author:Ted Nugent

“We plant a tree that won't be big enough to climb until we're too old to climb trees, we write constitutions to protect the rights of people who won't be born for another hundred years and may not be worth the trouble anyway, and we try to take care of our sick, though we all suffer from a disease for which there is no cure and no hope for one. We will not last and we know we will not - and still we write, carve, build, paint and plant to last. We are, it seems to me, very, very brave.”

“My greatest disappointment in all the projects I worked on during the White House years was the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment to be ratified. ... Why all the controversy and why such difficulty in giving women the protection of the Constitution that should have been theirs long ago?”

“To get that word, male, out of the Constitution, cost the women of this country fifty-two years of pauseless campaign; 56 state referendum campaigns; 480 legislative campaigns to get state suffrage amendments submitted; 47 state constitutional convention campaigns; 277 state party convention campaigns; 30 national party convention campaigns to get suffrage planks in the party platforms; 19 campaigns with 19 successive Congresses to get the federal amendment submitted, and the final ratification campaign.”

“Acting forces you to ask yourself, 'Can my constitution take a decade of constant rejection?' And after ten years, you either make it or you don't. And the problem is they don't tell you in advance.”

Years Problem Asks Force Acting Ten Constitution Constant Decades Rejection Constant Rejection

Author:Camryn Manheim

“The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government. During a happy period (A.D. 98-180) of more than fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines.”

Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

“Reading is the subtle and thorough sharing of the ideas and feelings by underhanded means. It is a gross invasion of Privacy and a direct violation of the Constitutions of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Age. The Teaching of Reading is equally a crime against Privacy and Personhood. One to five years on each count.”

Years Mean Ideas Feelings Age Reading Five Teaching Crime Direct Thirds Constitution Five Years Privacy Subtle Fourth Gross Fifth Invasion Violation Thorough Personhood Invasion Of Privacy

Author:Walter Tevis

“Every constitution..., and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years [a generation]. If it be enforced longer, it is anact of force, and not of right.”

Ifs Years Ends Law Force Generations Constitution

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“At my years, and with my disposition, or rather, constitution, one gets to care less and less for everything except downright goodfeeling. Life is so short, and so ridiculous and irrational (from a certain point of view) that one knows not what to make of it, unless--well, finish the sentence for yourself.”

Knows Life Years Wells Feelings Care Life Is Certain Views Constitution Sentences Point Of View Ridiculous Cynicism Irrational Disposition Good Feeling Life Is So Short

Book:Correspondence

Source: Correspondence

“You may consider me presumptuous, gentlemen, but I claim to be a citizen of the United States, with all the qualifications of a voter. I can read the Constitution, I am possessed of two hundred and fifty dollars, and the last time I looked in the old family Bible I found I was over twenty-one years of age.”

Source: Memorial of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Elizabeth L. Bladen, Olympia Brown, Susan B. Anthony, and Josephine L. Griffing, to the Congress of the United States, and the Arguments Thereon Before the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Senate

“The requirements of the theatre are very great--a strong constitution, energy and unflagging purpose, charm of feature, these alone do not necessarily mean anything, and they must not be relied upon as assurances of an easy conquest of the public heart. It is not only a question of fitness for the work, but of long years of most diligent effort to master the technique of the theatre, and to develop whatever of the art instinct we may possess upon the simplest, broadest, and most human lines.”

“We recognize the force of the argument that the effects of war under modern conditions may be felt in the economy for years and years, and that if the war power can be used in days of peace to treat all the wounds which war inflicts on our society, it may not only swallow up all other powers of Congress but largely obliterate the Ninth and the Tenth Amendments as well.”

Ifs Years Wells May War Used Force Felt Power Economy Modern Conditions Effects Economics Argument Treats Constitution Congress Wounds Our Society Amendments Effects Of War

Author:William O. Douglas

“I think most presidents are amazed at the overwhelming responsibility they have when they enter office and the tremendous amount of work there is. See, a modern president has far more responsibility than a president years ago. And if I were rewriting the Constitution, I would suggest a president be more like a monarch and then have a prime minister under him.”

Ifs Thinking Years President Responsibility Modern Amount Office Years Ago Constitution Ministers Prime Overwhelming Amazed Prime Minister Monarchs Rewriting

Author:Billy Graham

“If the Christian religion, as I understand it, or as you understand it, should maintain its ground, as I believe it will, yet Platonic, Pythagoric, Hindoo, and cabalistical Christianity, which is Catholic Christianity, and which has prevailed for 1500 years, has received a mortal wound, of which the monster must finally die. Yet so strong is his constitution, that he may endure for centuries before he expires.”

Ifs Should Years Believe May Christian Dies Belief Strong I Believe Christianity Century Constitution Catholic Endure Wounds Monsters Mortals Platonic

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 have quite a decent constitution in spite of all my abuse of it and my advanced years. I'm still quite robust.”

Years Stills Abuse Constitution Decent Spite Robust

Author:Christopher Hitchens

“If you want a more democratic EU, communication has to be among its core tasks. There should be a legal foundation for it: Fifty years after the founding of the European project, communication belongs in the constitution.”

Ifs Want Should Years Communication Projects Tasks Constitution Foundation Democratic Core Fifty Founding

Author:Margot Wallstrom

“Not in the constitution, but I would propose a law to the French parliament that provides for reducing the budget deficit year by year, until we have reached a balanced budget by 2017.”

Years Law Constitution Budgets Balanced Parliament Deficit Propose Reducing Balanced Budget Budget Deficit

Author:Francois Hollande

“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.”

“The current term of protection for software is the life of an author plus 70 years, or, if it's work-for-hire, a total of 95 years. This is a bastardization of the Constitution's requirement that copyright be for "limited times."”

Ifs Years Term Constitution Currents Protection Plus Software Requirements Copyright Limited Time

Author:Lawrence Lessig

“The death penalty? Give me a break. It's easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every state.”

Giving Years States Easy Break Constitution Give Me Criminals Abortion Penalties Homosexual Death Penalty Restriction

Author:Antonin Scalia

“Every organization of our government, the best government in the world, is crumbling to pieces. Those who have it in their hands are the ones who are destroying it. How long will it be before the words of the prophet Joseph will be fulfilled? He said if the Constitution of the United States were saved at all it must be done by this people. It will not be many years before these words come to pass.”

“For years we have heard of the role the Elders could play in saving the Constitution from total destruction. But how can the Elders be expected to save it if they have not studied it and are not sure if it is being destroyed or what is destroying it.”

Ifs Years Play Roles Heard Destruction Constitution Expected Destroyed Saving Not Sure Destroying Elders

Book:The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson

Source: The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson

“That's the argument of flexibility and it goes something like this: The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It has to change with society, like a living organism, or it will become brittle and break. But you would have to be an idiot to believe that. The Constitution is not a living organism; it is a legal document. It says something and doesn't say other things.”

Years Believe Break Argument Constitution Idiot Documents Organisms Flexibility Melting Living Organisms

Author:Antonin Scalia

“For Dicey, writing in 1885, and for me reading him some seventy years later, the rule of law still had a very English, or at least Anglo-Saxon, feel to it. It was later, through Hayek's masterpieces "The Constitution of Liberty" and "Law, Legislation and Liberty" that I really came to think this principle as having wider application.”

Thinking Feels Writing Years Stills Law Reading Liberty Principles Constitution Application Legislation Masterpiece Seventies Rule Of Law Hayek Anglo Saxon

Author:Margaret Thatcher

“Almost 100 years after women secured the right to vote in 1920 through the 19th Amendment, we still do not have equal rights under the Constitution. My question for the GOP candidates: Do you support the Equal Rights Amendment?”

Years Stills Support Rights Equal Vote Constitution Candidates Amendments Equal Rights Secured Right To Vote Gop Equal Rights Amendment

Author:Jane Fonda

“THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.”

Way Years States Law United United States Equal Constitution Stronger Dues Agents Amendments Smarter Vigilance

Author:Kurt Vonnegut

“For 70 years there's been a consensus among scholars and the American people on a reading to the Constitution that protects the right of privacy, the autonomy of individuals, while at the same time empowering the federal government to protect the less powerful.”

People Years Government Reading Individual Powerful Protect Constitution Empowering Privacy Scholar Federal Government Autonomy Consensus

Author:Joe Biden

“For years, I've had a hankering for the portrait of Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Duplessis. Franklin is credited with so many inventions: the postal system, lightning rods, the constitution. He was a rock star before there was such a thing.”

Years Stars Rocks Constitution Invention Lightning Portraits Rock Star Franklin Hankering

Author:Jon Bon Jovi

“For the last couple of hundred years, there have been struggles about this. Even the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the constitution talk about personal rights.”

Years Has Beens Lasts Struggle Rights Couple Hundred Constitution Amendments Fifth Personal Rights

Author:Noam Chomsky

“That was an extremely unhelpful thing for Bill Shorten to say because those of us - and as the Attorney-General I've been closely involved in this along with my colleague Nigel Scullion, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs - what we have been trying to do for some years now, throughout the life of the Coalition Government in fact, is to bring the Australian people on a journey with us - conservative Australians as well as more progressive Australians, to persuade them that it is a seemly and fitting and decent and appropriate thing to recognise the first Australians in the Constitution.”

“If you've worked together with somebody very well, leave-taking is very difficult. But we are all politicians. We all know that democracy lives off change. So, in the United States of America, the Constitution has very clear stipulations on this. It's a tough rule. Eight years and that's it, out goes the president and a new one comes in.”

Ifs Knows Years Wells States Together America Difficult President United United States Democracy Clear Politician Tough Constitution Eight United States Of America Stipulations

Author:Angela Merkel

“The commitment to international agreements is embodied, it's found in the U.S. Constitution. Article Six of the U.S. Constitution provides that treaties of the United States are part of the supreme law of the land along with the constitution itself and laws passed by Congress. Well, the US government certainly has not been acting in recent years as if treaties were part of the supreme law of the land.”

Ifs Years Wells States Government Law Found United Acting United States Land Six Commitment Constitution International Congress Supreme Agreement Articles Treaties

Author:John Burroughs

“I mean, the Constitution of this country was written 200 years ago. The house I was living in in Madrid is 350 years old! America is still a project, and you guys are working on it and bringing new things to it every day. That is beautiful to watch.”

Years Mean Stills Country America Beautiful Guy House Watches Written Projects Years Ago Constitution New Things Madrid

Author:Antonio Banderas

“How did we win the election in the year 2000? We talked about a humble foreign policy: No nation-building; don't police the world. That's conservative, it's Republican, it's pro-American - it follows the founding fathers. And, besides, it follows the Constitution.”

World Years Father Winning Nations Policy Building Republican Constitution Police Election Conservative Humble Foreign Policy Founding Nation Building

Author:Ron Paul

“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution of your country and the government established under it. Leave evils which exist in some parts of the country, but which are beyond your control, to the all-wise direction of an over-ruling Providence. Perform those duties which are present, plain and positive. Respect the laws of your country.”

“When men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe... that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas-- that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment. As all life is an experiment. Every year if not every day we wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge.”

“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

“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

“I taught the Constitution for ten years, I believe in the Constitution.”

Years Believe I Believe Taught Ten Constitution I Believe In Ass Bad Ass

Author:Trey Gowdy