Quotes
Quotations about the Constitution
- “We have seen that the American Constitution has changed, is changing, and by the law of its existence must continue to change, in its substance and practical working even when its words remain the same.”
~ James Bryce, British statesman and historian
- "In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
~ Thomas Jefferson
- “To maintain the ascendancy of the Constitution over the lawmaking majority is the great and essential point on which the success of the [American] system must depend; unless that ascendancy can be preserved, the necessary consequence must be that the laws will supersede the Constitution; and, finally, the will of the Executive, by influence of its patronage, will supersede the laws.”
~ John C. Calhoun
- “The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.”
~ Justice William O. Douglas
- “The layman’s constitutional view is that what he likes is constitutional and that which he doesn’t like is unconstitutional.”
~ Justice Hugo L. Black