“For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.” ThinkingLongImportantFoundChangeLibertyOpinionSubjectsInformationConstitutionInstanceConsiderationObligedConstitution Of The United StatesInfallibilityConstitutional Convention Author:Benjamin Franklin
“Contrary to popular opinion, the Constitution was not - and is not - a grant of rights to the citizenry. Instead, the Constitution is a "barbed-wire entanglement" designed to interfere with, restrict, and impede government officials in the exercise of political power.” GovernmentPoliticalLibertyOpinionRightsExerciseConstitutionLibertarianContraryOfficialsGrantsLibertarianismInterfereWirePolitical PowerCitizenryPopular OpinionGovernment OfficialsEntanglementBarbed Wire Author:Jacob G. Hornberger
“Public opinion: May it always perform one of its appropriate offices, by teaching the public functionaries of the State and of the Federal Government, that neither shall assume the exercise of powers entrusted by the Constitution to the other.” MayStatesGovernmentOpinionTeachingExerciseOfficeConstitutionAssumingPresidentialAppropriateFederal GovernmentPublic Opinion Author:James K. Polk
“Chinese citizens have never had the right to really express their opinions; in the constitution it says you can, but in the real world it is more dangerous. In the west people think it's a right they're born with. Here it's a right given by the government, and one that's not really practised.” PeopleThinkingWorldRealGovernmentGivenBornOpinionDangerousCitizensConstitutionWestChineseReal World Author:Ai Weiwei
“I think it's offensive to equate evangelical Christians, Catholics, others that view marriage as between a man and a woman, as being racist. We're not racist. We love our fellow man, we think we're all equal under God's eyes, we don't believe we should change the definition of marriage simply because of opinion polls or because of a court that quite frankly isn't looking at the constitution.” ThinkingMenShouldBelieveEyeChristianViewsOpinionEqualConstitutionCatholicFellowsCourtDon't BelieveDefinitionsRacistOffensivePollsFellow ManEvangelicalOpinion Polls Author:Bobby Jindal
“All ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance - unorthodox ideas, controversial ideas, even ideas hateful to the prevailing climate of opinion, have the full protection of the guarantees [of the First Amendment].” FirstsIdeasReligionIndividualSocialJusticeOpinionImportanceConstitutionClimateProtectionGuaranteesAmendmentsFirst AmendmentHatefulControversialPrevailingIndividual RightsRedeemingUnorthodox Author:William J. Brennan
“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.” PeopleMayHas BeensWholeGovernmentOpinionPrinciplesWrittenLimitsAuthorityBasesConstitutionOriginalsFundamentalsForgottenSupremeDefinedPermanentFabricMistakenLegislature Author:John Marshall