Quotes on Constitution

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.

Author: Samuel Adams

Be assured, fellow citizens, that in a democracy it is the laws that guard the person of the citizen and the constitution of the state, whereas the despot and the oligarch find their protection in suspicion and in armed guards.

Author: Aeschines

A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state.

Author: Aristotle

We have to think outside the box, inside the Constitution, find ways to do things that will elevate our security, reduce the risk of the incidence of terrorist attack.

Author: John Ashcroft

Nothing that we have authorized conflicts with any law regarding privacy or any provision of the constitution.

Author: John Ashcroft

The Constitution has not greatly bothered any wartime President.

Author: Francis Biddle

My role isn't to be politically smart. My role is to do what's right under the constitution. And if that's politically unpopular, so be it.

Author: Rose Bird

Our Constitution was not written in the sands to be washed away by each wave of new judges blown in by each successive political wind.

Author: Hugo Black

That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.

Author: William Blackstone

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

Author: Napoleon Bonaparte

Drafting a constitution is only the first step. The constitution has to be granted legitimacy by open discussion and a fair, representative referendum.

Author: Emma Bonino

The right to procreate is not guaranteed, explicitly or implicitly, by the Constitution.

Author: Robert Bork

I don't think the Constitution is studied almost anywhere, including law schools. In law schools, what they study is what the court said about the Constitution. They study the opinions. They don't study the Constitution itself.

Author: Robert Bork

Each state in the Union is honored in the order of when it ratified the Constitution and became a part of the United States. This September it is Iowa's turn. Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the union on December 28, 1846.

Author: Leonard Boswell

They had no right, as it seems to me, to prosecute me in these Halls; nor have you the right in law or under the Constitution, as I respectfully submit, to take jurisdiction over offenses committed against them.

Author: Preston Brooks

For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that will govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as it was designed by those who framed it.

Author: Martin Buren

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

Author: Robert Byrd

And the president is all wrong when he maintains that a nominee should have an up-or-down vote. The Constitution doesn't say that. The Constitution doesn't say that that nominee shall have any vote at all. There doesn't have to even be a vote.

Author: Robert Byrd

I have never seen such extreme partisanship, such bitter partisanship, and such forgetfulness of the fate of our fathers and of the Constitution.

Author: Robert Byrd

The Constitution in all its provisions looks to an indestructible union disposed of indestructible States.

Author: Salmon Chase

Most faults are not in our Constitution, but in ourselves.

Author: Ramsey Clark

The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.

Author: Henry Clay

Among the expected glories of the Constitution, next to the abolition of Slavery was that of Rum.

Author: George Clymer

Howard Phillips of the Constitution Party asked me to consider seriously running for president in 2008 and I am doing so.

Author: Jerome Corsi

One of the things I learned in law school is that there's nothing wrong or undesirable or dishonorable or destructive about amending the Constitution.

Author: Adrian Cronauer

I maintain that the House is bound by the Constitution to receive the petitions; after which, it will take such method of deciding upon them as reason and principle shall dictate.

Author: Caleb Cushing

Well for one, the 13th amendment to the constitution of the US which abolished slavery - did not abolish slavery for those convicted of a crime.

Author: Angela Davis

The U.S. Constitution is the basic framework for the greatest democracy on Earth. Some of my colleagues find it easy to amend it. I don't.

Author: Byron Dorgan

A new constitution should be more amendable. A needlessly confusing system of courts should be altered to produce an arrangement that would be simple, responsible, and less awkward.

Author: Charles Edison

The British Constitution has always been puzzling and always will be.

Author: Queen Elizabeth II

Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He is by constitution expensive, and needs to be rich.

Author: Ralph Emerson

Preventing terrorist attacks is of the highest important, but trashing the Constitution is not the right way to do it.

Author: Eliot Engel

The current Michigan Constitution was written in 1961 and '62.

Author: John Engler

I will for ever, at all hazards, assert the dignity, independence, and integrity of the English bar; without which, impartial justice, the most valuable part of the English constitution, can have no existence.

Author: Thomas Erskine

This revision of the Constitution will not be perfect. But at least the Constitution will not be inflexible. It will be a step towards the Social Europe which we wish.

Author: Laurent Fabius

The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it.

Author: Felix Frankfurter

The fifth amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees that no private property shall be taken for a public use without the payment of just compensation.

Author: Elton Gallegly

While not widely reported, our victories in Iraq are plentiful. National elections, a democratic parliament and the drafting of a constitution are just some of the victories throughout this embattled country.

Author: Paul Gillmor

The concept of neutrality can lead to a brooding and pervasive devotion to the secular and a passive, or even active, hostility to the religious. Such results are not only not compelled by the Constitution, but, it seems to me, are prohibited by it.

Author: Arthur Goldberg

The basic guarantees of our Constitution are warrants for the here and now, and unless there is an overwhelmingly compelling reason, they are to be promptly fulfilled.

Author: Arthur Goldberg

The real difference between the United States and other nations lies not in the words of the preamble to the Constitution, but in the fact that the substantive clauses of that Constitution are enforced by individuals independent of and not beholden to the elected branches.

Author: Harold Greene

The right to be let alone is the underlying principle of the Constitution's Bill of Rights.

Author: Erwin Griswold

Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.

Author: John Harlan

The Constitution is never tested during times of tranquility; it is during times of tension, turmoil, tragedy, trauma, and terrorism that it is sorely tested.

Author: Mike Honda

It is preposterous that the current members of the United States Senate and all of their predecessors for more than 200 years haven't been able to read the Constitution and do what it says.

Author: John Hooker

We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our property and our liberty and our property under the Constitution.

Author: Charles Hughes

We have to worry about protecting the Constitution.

Author: Karen Hughes

I didn't say 'former president,' I said 'president,' and I have the constitutional rights according to the constitution, including immunity from prosecution.

Author: Saddam Hussein

Tolerance is carved into the rostrum of the U.S. House of Representatives and intolerance should not be carved into the U.S. Constitution.

Author: Jay Inslee

All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.

Author: Andrew Jackson

The Constitution and the laws are supreme and the Union indissoluble.

Author: Andrew Jackson

From Watergate we learned what generations before us have known; our Constitution works. And during Watergate years it was interpreted again so as to reaffirm that no one - absolutely no one - is above the law.

Author: Leon Jaworski

I am sworn to uphold the Constitution as Andy Johnson understands it and interprets it.

Author: Andrew Johnson

The miners lost because they had only the constitution. The other side had bayonets. In the end, bayonets always win.

Author: Mother Jones

The right of election is the very essence of the constitution.

Author: Junius

If I am confirmed, I will commit to show Heller and the principles articulated in it the full measure of respect that is due to all constitution decisions of the court.

Author: Elena Kagan

As the Constitution endures, persons in every generation can invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom.

Author: Anthony Kennedy

The Constitution does not just protect those whose views we share; it also protects those with whose views we disagree.

Author: Edward Kennedy

The constitution is the ultimate custodian of social will and its making should be accorded all due diligence.

Author: Mwai Kibaki

That's the key: get the constitution in place. Get rule of law in place, capital will come, electricity will follow.

Author: Steve King

The frame of mind in the local legislatures seems to be exerted to prevent the federal constitution from having any good effect.

Author: Henry Knox

The house of Austria has publicly used every effort to deprive the country of its legitimate Independence and Constitution, designing to reduce it to a level with the other provinces long since deprived of all freedom, and to unite all in a common sink of slavery.

Author: Lajos Kossuth

There are only two ways to remove the president - if he violates the constitution or commits high treason. How could anyone accuse me of treason after I had terminated Israel's occupation of South Lebanon in 2000.

Author: Emile Lahoud

Owing to the difficulty of dealing with substances of high molecular weight we are still a long way from having determined the chemical characteristics and the constitution of proteins, which are regarded as the principal con-stituents of living organisms.

Author: Karl Landsteiner

The Iraqis have once again failed to meet a deadline for a final draft of the constitution.

Author: Matt Lauer

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

Author: Abraham Lincoln

I think the motive is to establish in federal law the personhood from conception forward and try and alter the Constitution through statute.

Author: Zoe Lofgren

Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.

Author: Thomas Macaulay

A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.

Author: Thomas Macaulay

Hosni Mubarak... his constitution is not democratic, but he is democratic. We can voice our opinions now. The press is free.

Author: Naguib Mahfouz

A constitution that is made for all nations is made for none.

Author: Joseph Maistre

If the constitution goes, I go.

Author: Kamisese Mara

Today's Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish.

Author: Thurgood Marshall

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

Author: Mitch McConnell

No constitution is or can be perfectly symmetrical, what it can and must be is generally accepted as both fair and usable.

Author: Ferdinand Mount

The relationship between press and politician - protected by the Constitution and designed to be happily adversarial - becomes sour, raw and confrontational.

Author: Roger Mudd

It's one of the nice things about this nation that when the Constitution is violated, if it affects you, you can bring a suit.

Author: Michael Newdow

Obviously, I'll keep fighting to uphold the Constitution.

Author: Michael Newdow

I believe I am strengthening the Constitution with my case.

Author: Michael Newdow

A federal judge did as he was supposed to do and upheld the Constitution. We should be thankful that we have judiciary that will do that.

Author: Michael Newdow

The constitution ought to specifically state that every nation is left entirely independent and supreme in its internal affairs, such as regulating emigration and all other similar matters.

Author: George Norris

Even though we now have the half-century-old new Constitution, there is a popular sentiment of support for the old one that lives on in reality in some quarters.

Author: Kenzaburo Oe

The fact that we're protected under that Constitution in exercising the right of free speech, it's a wonderful thing. You've got to come from somewhere else to realize how valuable it is.

Author: Pat Oliphant

I will always vote what I have promised, and always vote the Constitution, as well as I will not vote for one single penny that isn't paid for, because debt is the monster, debt is what's going to eat us up and that is why our economy is on the brink.

Author: Ron Paul

Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression.

Author: James Polk

One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights.

Author: James Polk

It is becoming more widely acknowledged that it is better to have a good constitution than not having a perfect one.

Author: Romano Prodi

What I am for is justice for everyone, just like it says in the Constitution.

Author: Richard Pryor

I believe realism is nothing but an analysis of reality. Film scripts have a synthetical constitution.

Author: Manuel Puig

Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators.

Author: Will Rogers

I am in favor, heartily in favor, of our Constitution and Bill of Rights and I owe my allegiance to my country at all times.

Author: Julius Rosenberg

There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all.

Author: Antonin Scalia

Simultaneously with the establishment of the Constitution, Virginia ceded to the United States her domain, which then extended to the Mississippi, and was even claimed to extend to the Pacific Ocean.

Author: William Seward

If slavery, limited as it yet is, now threatens to subvert the Constitution, how can we as wise and prudent statesmen, enlarge its boundaries and increase its influence, and thus increase already impending dangers?

Author: William Seward

But I deny that the Constitution recognizes property in man.

Author: William Seward

I submit, on the other hand, most respectfully, that the Constitution not merely does not affirm that principle, but, on the contrary, altogether excludes it.

Author: William Seward

There is a higher law than the Constitution.

Author: William Seward

The merit of our Constitution was, not that it promotes democracy, but checks it.

Author: Horatio Seymour

We also intend to deal with the issue of incorporating basic human rights into our new constitution.

Author: Chen Shui-bian

They will sustain the constitution and laws and institutions of the United States, and be the champions of liberty and of that constitution when its integrity shall be threatened.

Author: Lorenzo Snow

Even though Article IV of the Constitution says that treaties are the 'supreme law of the land,' in most instances they're not even law.

Author: Sonia Sotomayor

As a matter of traditional and sound constitutional doctrine, an amendment to the Constitution should be the last resort when all other measures have proved inadequate.

Author: Arlen Specter

I believe in an evolving Constitution. A flexible Constitution leaves room for us to consider not merely how the world once was, but how it ought to be.

Author: Eliot Spitzer

It must always be remembered that what the Constitution forbids is not all searches and seizures, but unreasonable searches and seizures.

Author: Potter Stewart

Our plan is to struggle against terrorism and have security for the country and help draft a democratic constitution as soon as possible.

Author: Jalal Talabani

As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution.

Author: Henry Thoreau

A privilege may not be a right, but, under the constitution of the country, I do not gather that any broad distinction is drawn between the rights and the privileges that were enjoyed and that were taken away.

Author: Charles Tupper

When the Constitution gave us the right to bear arms, it also made us responsible for using them properly. It's not fair of us as citizens to lean more heavily on one side of that equation than on the other.

Author: Jesse Ventura

Allowing Texas to display the Ten Commandments on State property but disallowing Kentucky courthouses from doing the same is a poor and flawed interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

Author: Ginny Waite

I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag.

Author: Craig Washington

The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.

Author: George Washington

Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth.

Author: George Washington

One country, one constitution, one destiny.

Author: Daniel Webster

Let it be borne on the flag under which we rally in every exigency, that we have one country, one constitution, one destiny.

Author: Daniel Webster

Neither James Madison, for whom this lecture is named, nor any of the other Framers of the Constitution, were oblivious, careless, or otherwise unaware of the words they chose for the document and its Bill of Rights.

Author: Diane Wood