Quotes About Constitution And Government

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

Brigham Young

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

Camille Desmoulins

#3. Attending that Convention and talking with those people and many others convinced me that I should become a blogger in my efforts to reform the government and uphold the integrity of the Constitution and the laws made in furtherance thereof.

John Jay Hooker

#4. Religion and faith are very personal matters. So far as the government is concerned, there is only one holy book, which is the Constitution of India.

Narendra Modi

#5. Anarchy is ... a form of government or constitution in which public and private consciousness , formed through the development of science and law , is alone sufficient to maintain order and guarantee all liberties.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

#6. I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit.

Grover Cleveland

#7. Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.

John Marshall

#8. 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.

Nathaniel Fick

#9. Internal self-government under a local constitution was authorized by Congress and approved by the residents in 1952, but federal law is supreme in Puerto Rico and residents do not have voting representation in the Congress.

Dick Thornburgh

#10. The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution.

Ronald Reagan

#11. [I]n my own case at least I feel my professional need for freedom of speech and expression prejudices me toward a government whose constitution guarantees it.

John Updike

#12. If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one ...

James Madison

#13. While we have a Constitution that is very strong in the sense that we are not gonna have a religion that's sanctioned by the government, it doesn't mean that we need to have a separation between government and religion.

Ken Buck

#14. The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.

Thomas Jefferson

#15. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power.

Thomas Jefferson

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

Dave Barry

#17. 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.

William J.H. Boetcker

#18. I've been involved in the intelligence side of the federal government for a long time. We all know that we have to have a balance between security to protect the American people and liberty. We take an oath to protect and defend the constitution and the American people.

Barack Obama

#19. It is one thing to be subordinate to the laws, and another [for the Executive] to be dependent on the legislative body. The first comports with, the last violates, the fundamental principles of good government; and, whatever may be the forms of the Constitution, unites all power in the same hands.

Alexander Hamilton

#20. The same Constitution that allows her the right, if she wants to, to sit there and say nothing, allows these groups the right to petition their government for redress.

Trey Gowdy

#21. Precedents are dangerous things; let the reins of government then be braced and held with a steady hand, and every violation of the Constitution be reprehended: If defective let it be amended, but not suffered to be trampled upon whilst it has an existence.

George Washington

#22. 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.

Erwin Chemerinsky

#23. I don't believe there is a separation of church and state. I think the Constitution is very clear. The only separation is that there will not be a government church.

Tom DeLay

#24. I go where the revolution is, and the revolution is Ron Paul. Ron Paul is a champion of the Constitution. He's about getting rid of the Federal Reserve and shrinking federal government.

Christine Ebersole

#25. To prosper, a zoo needs parliamentary government, democratic elections, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, rule of law and everything else enshrined in India's Constitution. Impossible to enjoy the animals otherwise. Long-term, bad politics is bad for business.

Yann Martel

#26. In the United States we have, in effect, two governments ... We have the duly constituted Government ... Then we have an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government in the Federal Reserve System, operating the money powers which are reserved to Congress by the Constitution.

Wright Patman

#27. I don't see any justification for the federal government owning land, other than the Statue of Liberty and maybe a few parks, maybe a few refuges. But to just own land to do nothing with it I think is a disservice to the Constitution.

Don Young

#28. 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.

Ai Weiwei

#29. Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.

James Madison

#30. And we can celebrate when we have a government that has earned back the trust of the people it serves ... when we have a government that honors our Constitution and stands up for the values that have made America, America: economic freedom, individual liberty, and personal responsibility.

John Boehner

#31. According to an original reading of the Constitution and Declaration, the intrusiveness that is an inevitable part of big government is an offense against its people.

A.E. Samaan

#32. The Constitution and laws of the United States resemble a theocracy more closely than any government now on the earth, or that ever has been, so far as we know, except the government of the children of Israel to the time when they elected a king.

Brigham Young

#33. In the span of three years, the Iraqi people participated in three elections, drafted a constitution, and elected a new government. While more work remains, this is remarkable progress.

Tim Murphy

#34. The Constitution is government's stop sign. It says, you - the three branches of government - can go so far and no farther.

Michele Bachmann

#35. It is the people, and not the judges, who are entitled to say what their constitution means, for the constitution is theirs, it belongs to them and not to their servants in office - any other theory is incompatible with the foundation principles of our government.

Theodore Roosevelt

#36. Without the basis in written law, and without the basis in our Constitution ratified by the people, judges can't make laws. And if we accept the notion that their dictates are law, then we have not only submitted to tyranny, we have abandoned a republican form of government.

Alan Keyes

#37. They're lots of good Americans here in New York who have common sense and who believe in free markets and free people and limited government under our Constitution. Those are the principles I've always stood for. I know they're right, and that's what I'm going to stand for.

Wendy E. Long

#38. It is unfortunate that Americans are no longer aware of what the constitution says and what their rights are. Because of that, we are often very passive about what happens when the government violates those rights.

James Bovard

#39. Why volunteer to fight in wars that contribute nothing for our security and undermine our Constitution? More and more Americans are beginning to realize that the government has little to do with "defending our freedoms" or stopping terrorism.

Ron Paul

#40. It's a rare human being who understands intellectually and emotionally the freedoms contained within our Constitution and the right of every human being to make decisions about their own lives consistent with their own conscience and without the interference of government.

Geoffrey Fieger

#41. The government of the Union, though limited in its powers, is supreme within its sphere of action, and its laws, when made in pursuance of the constitution, form the supreme law of the land.

John Marshall

#42. I tip my hat to the new constitution, I take a bow for the new revolution, smile and grin at the change all around me.

The Who

#43. Well, first let's say that the fundamental responsibility of any government is national security - in the preamble to the Constitution, provide for the common defense and insure domestic tranquility.

Angus King

#44. How can this full, perfect, just and supreme voice of the people, embodied in the Constitution, be brought to bear, habitually and steadily, in counteracting the fatal tendency of the government to the absolute and despotic control of the numerical majority?

John C. Calhoun

#45. And those rights are not to be lightly infringed upon by government in any way. They're explicitly protected by the Constitution from the government. We are, after all, fragile living things that can be suppressed and abused by the powerful.

Thom Hartmann

#46. The U.S. Constitution protects our privacy from the prying eyes of government. It does not, however, protect us from the prying eyes of companies and corporations.

Simon Sinek

#47. In our system of democracy, our government works on a system of checks and balances. Instead of stripping power from the courts, I believe we should follow the process prescribed in our Constitution - consideration of a Constitutional amendment.

Dennis Cardoza

#48. We have a government of limited power under the Constitution, and we have got to work out our problems on the basis of law.

William Howard Taft

#49. The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. They are construing our constitution from a co-ordination of a general and special government to a general and supreme one alone.

Thomas Jefferson

#50. These books sank without a trace, or faded fast, because they tell the sort of truths that Madison and Jefferson believed our Constitution should protect - truths that the people have the right to know, and needs to know, about our government and other powers that keep us in the dark.

Christopher Simpson

#51. It was settled by the Constitution, the laws, and the whole practice of the government that the entire executive power is vested in the President of the United States.

Andrew Jackson

#52. I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government has argued in the Supreme Court that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion.

Samuel Alito

#53. The Conservative does not despise government. He despises tyranny. This is precisely why the Conservative reveres the Constitution and insists on adherence to it.

Mark R. Levin

#54. The First Amendment to the Constitution reflects that concept recognized in the Ten Commandments, that the duties we owe to God and the manner of discharging those duties are outside the purview of government.

Roy Moore

#55. Our Constitution, which was intended to limit government power and abuse, has failed,

Ron Paul

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

John Adams

#57. 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.

James K. Polk

#58. Our Constitution wisely assigns both joint and separate roles to each branch of the government; and a President and a Congress who hold each other in mutual respect will neither permit nor attempt any trespass.

John F. Kennedy

#59. Do we really want the FCC to conduct investigations and issue warnings to radio talk show hosts nationwide who simply discuss the important issues of our time? The Constitution says 'freedom of speech,' not 'freedom of government-approved fair speech in rationed amounts.'

Tim Walberg

#60. The makers of our Constitution ... conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.

Louis D. Brandeis

#61. The Founders never intended for Americans to trust their government. Our entire Constitution was predicated on the notion that government was a necessary evil, to be restrained and minimized as much as possible.

Rand Paul

#62. It is now well established that the Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas ... This right to receive information and ideas, regardless of their social worth, ... is fundamental to our free society.

Thurgood Marshall

#63. There are three qualifications required in those who have to fill the highest offices, - (1) first of all, loyalty to the established constitution; (2) the greatest administrative capacity; (3) virtue and justice of the kind proper to each form of government.

Aristotle.

#64. The people are the source of governmental power. Along with many religious people, Latter-day Saints affirm that God gave the power to the people, and the people consented to a constitution that delegated certain powers to the government ... The sovereign power is in the people.

Dallin H. Oaks

#65. The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

Patrick Henry

#66. The government is everywhere sovereign in the state, and the constitution is in fact the government.

Aristotle.

#67. It is ... particularly true of constitutional government that its atmosphere is opinion ... It does not remain fixed in any unchanging form, but grows with the growth and is altered with the change of the nation's needs and purposes.

Woodrow Wilson

#68. In all the co-temporary discussions and comments, which the Constitution underwent, it was constantly justified and recommended on the ground, that the powers not given to the government, were withheld from it.

James Madison

#69. The government was set to protect man from criminals, and the Constitution was written to protect man from the government.

Ayn Rand

#70. 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'.

Charlton Heston

#71. The constitution of England is not a paper constitution. It is an aggregate of institutions, many of them founded merely upon prescription, some of them fortified by muniments, but all of them the fruit and experience of an ancient and illustrious people.

Benjamin Disraeli

#72. I'm not against the government. I'm against this ever-expanding government that doesn't know its limits. And that's how I see the role of the attorney general, as someone in an office that can protect you and defend the Constitution and defend state sovereignty and our individual liberty.

Alan Wilson

#73. The Bolivian government has promised to guarantee autonomy in the framework of unity, legality, and with the goal of equalizing the different regions of Bolivia. It's right there in the constitution.

Evo Morales

#74. Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics ... derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.

Benjamin Franklin

#75. The government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers.

Thomas Jefferson

#76. Of the judicial department of the Government, the Supreme Court is the head and representative, and to it must come for final decision all the great legal questions which may arise under the Constitution, the laws, or the treaties of the United States.

Samuel Freeman Miller

#77. The unfortunate and inescapable historical truth is that those in government - from both parties and with a few courageous exceptions - do not feel constrained by the Constitution. They think they can do whatever they want.

Andrew Napolitano

#78. [E]very Man who comes among us, and takes up a piece of Land, becomes a Citizen, and by our Constitution has a Voice in Elections, and a share in the Government of the Country.

Benjamin Franklin

#79. 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.

Brigham Young

#80. The founding fathers, whose infinite wisdom gave us a Constitution and form of government well nigh perfect, located the seat of that government in a stinking, steaming swamp.

Mark Leibovich

#81. The Founding Fathers envisioned a federal government that trusts its people with their money and freedom, outlining this limited, non-intrusive federal government in ... the Constitution, leaving the other powers to people ... or to the states.

Milton Friedman

#82. I follow a set of principles, I follow the Constitution. And that's what I base my votes on. Limited government, economic freedom and individual liberty.

Justin Amash

#83. An efficient militia is authorized and contemplated by the Constitution and required by the spirit and safety of free government.

James Madison

#84. The defects of every government and constitution both as to principle and form, must, on a parity of reasoning, be as open to discussion as the defects of a law, and it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out.

Thomas Paine

#85. The success of those doctrines would also subvert the Federal Constitution, change the character of the Federal Government, and destroy our rights in respect to slavery.

John H. Reagan

#86. Altering the Constitution has become the daily business of the Federal Government which the document is supposed to guide and limit. Both Congress and the judiciary assume, and exercise, countless powers they aren't entitled to.

Joseph Sobran

#87. Christianity is permitted under China's constitution, and the government has long supported a network of official Christian churches.

Evan Osnos

#88. Because of my upbringing, I believe in things like limited government, fiscal responsibility and personal accountability. I believe in the wisdom of our founders and the sanctity of our Constitution.

John Thune

#89. The Left regards the Constitution as defective and outmoded - in part because it impedes the government's ability to control institutions, like churches and families, which stand between the state and individuals.

Gary Bauer

#90. I'd love to thwart the Census form, but I want a constitutional basis for doing it - and here's the tricky thing. I think even constitutional purists would tell you that just because something isn't in the Constitution does not mean the government cannot do it.

Mark Davis

#91. I believe that the United States government was set up with the help of God, and it is the closest government in the world to how God would have men govern themselves.

Gary Hansen

#92. The Constitution says that government isn't supposed to be infusing religion into our society, and so I asked to have that upheld.

Michael Newdow

#93. Individual guarantees stated in writing in the constitution are of no use to a nation if it is not the people, but a third party, whether government or trade-union, that fixes prices and wages

Faustino Ballve

#94. The real struggle between an American government and the people was one of power, which was settled when they designed their Constitution, which conceded the sovereignty of the people when it came to politics, and the sovereignty of the consumer when it came to economics.

Ndabaningi Sithole

#95. If children do not understand the Constitution, they cannot understand how our government functions, or what their rights and responsibilities are as citizens of the United States.

John Roberts

#96. I have a job to pay attention. It is my number one duty as a human being - to earn an experiment in self-government every day by spotlighting cockroaches who violate their oath to the US constitution and wipe their ass with the US Constitution

Ted Nugent

#97. The Constitution limits the role of government. The Constitution enumerates the freedoms of the people and enforces those freedoms against government, making sure government cannot encroach.

Rush Limbaugh

#98. No power on earth is greater than a mind and soul reawakened. Our Constitution begins 'we the people', not 'us the government'.

Cal Thomas

#99. The first amendment makes it clear that we are free to practice religion without government interference. The Constitution also establishes the separation of church and state so that the laws we live by our never guided by religious zeal.

Roxane Gay

#100. No one can read our Constitution without concluding that the people who wrote it wanted their government severely limited; the words "no" and "not" employed in restraint of government power occur 24 times in the first seven articles of the Constitution and 22 more times in the Bill of Rights.

Edmund A. Opitz