Quotes About Political constitution

[I]f we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity.

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.

If we want people to think, we must also want their thoughts to be communicated; and we must support a political constitution that confirms the public nature of thought.

Là où la royauté a pu se maintenir en devenant « constitutionnelle », elle n'est plus que l'ombre d'elle-même et n'a guère qu'une existence nominale et « représentative », comme l'exprime la formule connue d'après laquelle « le roi règne, mais ne gouverne pas », ce n'est véritablement qu'une caricature de l'ancienne royauté.

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 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 (1751–1836)

This conception of representation appears throughout The Federalist Papers. No. 57 urges that: "The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers 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.

As a country we have more of a political constitution than a legal one, and as such it operates via conventions and precedents.

The history of the human race, viewed as a whole may be regarded as the realization of a hidden plan of nature to bring about a political constitution, internally, and for this purpose, also externally perfect, as the only state in which all the capacities implanted by her in mankind can be fully developed.