Quotes About Government

above all, Locke's transforming idea that government was established and maintained by the consent of the governed, in which all men had an equal voice. "Who shall be Judge whether the Prince or Legislative act contrary to their Trust?" he had asked, and answered, "The People shall be Judge." The

Columbia Law School and Coolidge's Attorney

Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks -- no form of government can render us secure. To suppose liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.

The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government

It is sufficiently obvious, that persons and property are the two great subjects on which Governments are to act; and that the rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted. These rights cannot be separated

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.

A good government implies two things: fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained.

I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse, and in a Republican Government a greater curse than any other.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what is will be tomorrow

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 subject to particular exceptions.

Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own

The powers of the federal government are enumerated; it can only operate in certain cases; it has legislative powers on defined and limited objects, beyond which it cannot extend its jurisdiction

A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.

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.

The essence of Government is power and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

To secure the public good, and private rights, against the danger of… faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.

A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both.

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself.