The quote database

a Constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory, whether of paternalism and the organic relation of the citizen to the state or of laissez faire

This case is decided upon an economic theory which a large part of the country does not entertain.

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. Pride is the burden of a foolish person.

Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.

The principle then lies about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.

We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens.

Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.

When the world was over run with tyranny the least remove therefrom was a glorious rescue.

Government with insolence is despotism; but when contempt is added it becomes worse; and to pay for contempt is the excess of slavery.

It is over the lowest class of mankind that government by terror is intended to operate, and it is on them that it operates to the worst effect.

The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of the people constituting its government.

The enormous expense of governments has provoked people to think, by making them feel; and when once the veil begins to rend, it admits not of repair.

Marshall's statement cannot be read to mean in any sense that a President is above the law

If parties in a republic are necessary to secure a degree of vigilance sufficient to keep the public functionaries within the bounds of law and duty, at that point their usefulness ends.

The public officials charged with executing the law might do injustice in heated controversy through unconscious pride of opinion and obstinacy of conclusion.

The calculated killing of a human being by the State involves, by its very nature, a denial of the executed person's humanity.

Show me the government which can be maintained only by destroying the rights of a portion of the people; and you will indicate the duty of openly revolting against it.

Slavery cannot bear one ray of light, or the slightest criticism.

All other work but this is worthless; it is slaves’ work—mere toiling to live, that we may live to toil.

Otherwise, free speech which is the strength of the Nation will be the cause of its destruction.

The quality of advocacy turns on the depth of the conviction; and government has no power to invade that sanctuary of belief and conscience.

The great Government we loved has too often been made use of for private and selfish purposes, and those who used it had forgotten the people.

Only it seems to me a grievous error in a ruler to quarrel with all his subjects at once.