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Great Quotes
"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of
authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made
to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are
men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They
promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
--Daniel Webster
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"The world is governed more by appearance than realities so that it is
fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it."
--Daniel Webster
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"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground:
That 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States or to the people' (10th Amendment). To take a single step beyond
the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress, is
to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible
to any definition."
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to George Washington,15 February, 1791
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"You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I
suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up
or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom
consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.
Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who
would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward
path. Plutarch warned, 'The real destroyer of the liberties of the
people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.'"
Ronald Reagan
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"On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry
ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect
the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning
may be squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the
probable one in which it was passed."
Thomas Jefferson, to Justice William Johnson, 1823
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"The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to
obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most
virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place,
to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst
they continue to hold their public trust."
--James Madison, Federalist #57,
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"A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people
constituting a government; and government without a constitution is
power without a right. All power exercised over a nation, must have some
beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other
sources. all delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is
usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either."
--Thomas Paine
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"Can the real Constitution be restored? Probably not. Too many Americans
depend on government money under programs the Constitution doesn't
authorize, and money talks with an eloquence Shakespeare could only
envy. Ignorant people don't understand The Federalist Papers, but they
understand government checks with their names on them."
--Joseph Sobran
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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to
fill the world
with fools.
-Herbert Spencer (1891)
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Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean
politics won't take an interest in you.
-Pericles (430 B.C.)
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When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things
to be bought and sold are legislators.
-P.J. O'Rourke
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More laws, less justice.
-Marcus Tullius Ciceroca (42 B.C.)
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Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the
argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
-William Pitt (1783)
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One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in
this world are to be cured by legislation.
-Thomas B. Reed (1886)
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The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates.
-Tacitus
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Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be
the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than
under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may
sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those
who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do
so with the approval of their own conscience.
-C. S. Lewis
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It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.
-Calvin Coolidge
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Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
-Montesquieu
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If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the
law.
-Winston Churchill
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"Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made
laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and
property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the
first place."
-- Frederic Bastiat
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"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and
the Bible"
-- George Washington
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"We have no government armed with power capable of contending
with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our
Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It
is wholly inadequate to the government of any other"
-- John Adams
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"Our safety, our liberty depends on preserving the Constitution
of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The
people of the US are the rightful masters of both Congress and
the courts - Not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow
the men who pervert the Constitution"
-- Abraham Lincoln
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"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without
blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and
not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to
fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance
of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have
to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better
to perish than to live as slaves."
-- Winston Churchill
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"The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he
neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his
health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the
state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or
sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from
ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills."
-- Thomas Jefferson, October 1776
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"Another source of power in government is a military force. But this, to
be efficient, must be superior to any force that exists among the
people, or which they can command; for otherwise this force would be
annihilated, on the first exercise of acts of oppression. Before a
standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in
almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot
enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people
are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops
that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military
force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the
people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the
power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist
the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive."
--Noah Webster
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MORE......Constitutional Quotes
Notable Quotes
Consenscience
LDS Religious Quotes
Know any "great quotes?" Send them on to us.
GBBrunt@aol.com
Thanks for sending quotes: Steven H. McCown
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