Gore Vidal - Abigail Adams - Christopher Hitchens - Robert G Ingersoll - Thomas Jefferson & Declaration of Independence - Rugus Choate - John Marshall - Scott Ritter - Eamon de Valera - Charles Wassum - Jay Leno - Thomas Paine - William Pitt - Abraham Lincoln - ex Parte Milligan - Horace Walpole - Patrick Henry - George Washington - Benjamin Franklin - Salmon Portland Chase - Wendell Willkie - Samuel Adams - John Adams - George W Bush - William O Douglas - Carl Sagan - William Murray 1768 - Ignacio Ramirez - Will Hutton - Brad Meltzer’s Decoded TV - Morgan Freeman TV - Chalmers Johnson - Mark Crispin Miller -
We should stop going around babbling about how we’re the greatest democracy on earth, when we're not even a democracy. We are a sort of militarised republic. The founding fathers hated two things, one was monarchy and the other was democracy, they gave us a constitution that saw to it we will have neither. I don’t know how wise they were. Gore Vidal, interview Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2001
In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would remember the ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. Abigail Adams, 1744-1818, wife of John Adams, mother of John Quincy Adams
Without Thomas Jefferson and his Declaration of Independence, there would have been no American revolution that announced universal principles of liberty. Without his participation by the side of the unforgettable Marquis de Lafayette, there would have been no French proclamation of The Rights of Man. Without his brilliant negotiation of the Louisiana treaty, there would be no United States of America. Without Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, there would have been no Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom, and no basis for the most precious clause of our most prized element of our imperishable Bill of Rights – the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Christopher Hitchens
They knew that to put God in the constitution was to put man out. They knew that the recognition of a Deity would be seized upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying the liberty of thought. They knew the terrible history of the church too well to place in her keeping or in the keeping of her God the sacred rights of man. They intended that all should have the right to worship or not to worship that our laws should make no distinction on account of creed. They intended to found and frame a government for man and for man alone. They wished to preserve the individuality of all to prevent the few from governing the many and the many from persecuting and destroying the few. Robert G Ingersoll
It is contended by many that ours is a Christian government, founded upon the Bible, and that all who look upon the book as false or foolish are destroying the foundation of our country. The truth is, our government is not founded upon the rights of gods, but upon the rights of men. Our Constitution was framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of Christ, but the sacredness of humanity. Ours is the first government made by the people and for the people. It is the only nation with which the gods have had nothing to do. And yet there are some judges dishonest and cowardly enough to solemnly decide that this is a Christian country, and that our free institutions are based upon the infamous laws of Jehovah. Robert G Ingersoll
No provision in our constitution ought to be dearer to man that that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of civil authority. Thomas Jefferson
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. US Declaration of Independence
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. ibid. 1st Amendment
Its constitution the glittering and sounding generalities of natural right which make up the Declaration of Independence. Rufus Choate, 1799-1859, American lawyer & politician
The people make the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will. John Marshall, Cohens v Virginia 1821
And what did we see in the aftermath of 9/11 of 2001? Action on all fronts. The Patriot Act was passed here in the United States without public debate, without any debate by Congress. Just passed. It’s a frontal assault on the constitution. Scott Ritter
Of course I wrote most of the Constitution myself. I remember hesitating for a long time over the US presidential system. But it wouldn’t have done — we were too trained in English democracy to sit down under a dictatorship which is what the American system really is. Eamon de Valera
A New World Order and the United Nations would mean among other things an end to our God-given rights given us and secured by the Constitution. Charles Wassum
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don’t we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys. It’s worked for over 200 years, and Hell, we’re not using it any more. Jay Leno
We have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again. Thomas Paine
I invoke the genius of the Constitution! William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, speech House of Lord 18th November 1777
Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. Abraham Lincoln
We the people 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
The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. ex Parte Milligan 71 US 2 (1866)
Everybody talks of the constitution, but all sides forget that the constitution is extremely well, and would do very well, if they would but let it alone. Horace Walpole, 1770
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
The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon. George Washington
Our new Constitution is now established and has the appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes. Benjamin Franklin
The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. Benjamin Franklin
The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States. Salmon Portland Chase, 1808-73, American lawyer & politician
The Constitution does not provide for first and second class citizens. Wendell Willkie, An American Program, 1944
A constitution should be short and obscure. Napoleon Bonaparte
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. Craig Washington
The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men. Samuel Adams
Our Constitution protects aliens, drunks and US Senators. John Adams
All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation. John Adams
Don’t bother me with the Constitution. It’s just another ... god-damned piece of paper. George W Bush November 2005, alleged comment
The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people. William O Douglas