Profoundly inspirational constitution quotes will challenge the way you think, change the way you live and transform your whole life.
Famous Constitution Quotes
One of the things I learned in law school is that there’s nothing wrong or undesirable or dishonorable or destructive about amending the Constitution. — Adrian Cronauer
Today, we stand as a united country and are much closer to the ideals set forth in our Constitution 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. — Jim Ryun
Conservatism is about the basic rights of individuals. God created us. As far as the government goes, the Founding Fathers based the Constitution off of Christian values. It goes hand-in-hand. As far as the Republican Party? I felt connected to it because individual freedom should not be legislated by the federal government. — Joe Wurzelbacher
I am in favor of admitting any territory into the Union of States as soon as it has fulfilled the requirements of the Constitution and shall petition for admission. — Ambrose Burnside
A constitution that is made for all nations is made for none. — Joseph de Maistre
President Obama’s respect for the Constitution does not extend to freedom of religion – his administration has forced religious businessowners to pay for insurance plans that cover activities in violation of religious precepts. — Ben Shapiro
We are a constitutional monarchy. I don’t order laws, I propose them. Article 35 of our constitution states that the king can only refuse a law of parliament once, then he has to sign it – if the same law is then supported by a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament. — Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa
Never mind what makes Canada’s constitution so special. Probably something to do with hockey, or the inalienable right to poutine, or securing the blessings of Rick Moranis. — Kevin Bleyer
Without the three-fifths rule, there wouldn’t have been a Constitution of the United States – not one that governed the American South, at any rate – because the South wouldn’t have ratified it. — Timothy Noah
The frame of mind in the local legislatures seems to be exerted to prevent the federal constitution from having any good effect. — Henry Knox
The Constitution I uphold and defend is the one I carry in my pocket all the time, the U.S. Constitution. I don’t know what Constitution that other members of Congress uphold, but it’s not this one. I think the only Constitution that Barack Obama upholds is the Soviet constitution, not this one. — Paul Broun
At the same time the Constitution sets in stone the Stability Pact and risks preventing member States from implementing a policy of growth. So we are not able to do things at the European or the national level. — Laurent Fabius
Ferguson and St. Louis County are not the first places that we have become engaged to ensure fair and equitable policing, and they will not be the last. The Department of Justice will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that the Constitution has meaning for all communities. — Eric Holder
Our forefathers got it; they got it, man. They took godly principles and they put them into action, and they developed our Constitution – the land of freedom where each man is accountable and responsible for his actions. — Luke Scott
The whole edifice of modern physics is built up on the fundamental hypothesis of the atomic or molecular constitution of matter. — C. V. Raman
Most faults are not in our Constitution, but in ourselves. — Ramsey Clark
The Constitution in all its provisions looks to an indestructible union disposed of indestructible States. — Salmon Portland Chase
Our Constitution was put together for a free people. — Butch Otter
To research my book ‘Me the People’ – in which I have rewritten the entire Constitution of the United States – I flew to Greece, the birthplace of democracy. I bused to Philly, the home of independence. I even, if you can believe it, read the Constitution of the United States. — Kevin Bleyer
The Constitution overrides a statute, but a statute, if consistent with the Constitution, overrides the law of judges. In this sense, judge-made law is secondary and subordinate to the law that is made by legislators. — Benjamin N. Cardozo
I think the motive is to establish in federal law the personhood from conception forward and try and alter the Constitution through statute. — Zoe Lofgren
Yes, my fellow citizens, despite what the original Constitution of the United States says about the qualifications for statehood and the guarantee of representation in Congress, by every measure that truly matters in America (bigness, crowdedness, awesomeness, Texasness), Nebraska doesn’t deserve its star on the American flag. — Kevin Bleyer
Nothing in the constitutions of Western states requires them to get involved in every foreign conflict. — Daniel Pipes
In the Constitution of the American Republic there was a deliberate and very extensive and emphatic division of governmental power for the very purpose of preventing unbridled majority rule. — Robert W. Welch, Jr.
Fascism in Uruguay did not begin just with the military coup of 1973, but years before, even when there was still a government with a constitution and parliament. — Jose Mujica
The Constitution does not just protect those whose views we share; it also protects those with whose views we disagree. — Edward Kennedy
We say keep your change, we’ll keep our God, our guns, our constitution. — Sarah Palin
Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle. — Thomas Hardy
Let the living give thanks to our honored dead who have paid the ultimate sacrifice that the Constitution of the United States remains our guiding light. — Bob Latta
The only way to ensure equality for women is to clearly declare it in our Constitution. — Carolyn Maloney
This is a time for a national conversation. A conversation about the document that binds us as a nation and a people. That document, of course, is the Constitution. — Mike DeWine
Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is, that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. — George Haven Putnam
What is in the Constitution is the burning desire and aspiration of all the people of Vietnam. So for the moment, we don’t think about opposition parties. — Nong Duc Manh
If I have to, I will use one challenge after another to dismantle governmental operations that I consider violations of the Constitution. — Greg Abbott
It doesn’t say anywhere in the Constitution this idea of the separation of church and state. — Sean Hannity
The incurably suspicious Arthur Lee, youngest brother of Richard Henry, was of opinion that what others termed ‘errors’ in the Constitution were a deliberate scheme to create an oligarchy. — Douglas Southall Freeman
The right to procreate is not guaranteed, explicitly or implicitly, by the Constitution — Robert Bork
The Constitution shall never be construed… to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. — Samuel Adams
Women deserve the same permanent rights and explicit protections given men in the Constitution. — Carolyn Maloney
The fact that we’re protected under that Constitution in exercising the right of free speech, it’s a wonderful thing. You’ve got to come from somewhere else to realize how valuable it is. — Pat Oliphant
The whole basis of the Constitution was a restriction of power, and the whole basis of the federalist system was that there was not one sovereign centralized power from which all authority flows. — Roy Moore
The constitution is itself the product of the freedom struggle. — Vayalar Ravi
The basic premise of the Constitution was a separation of powers and a system of checks and balances because man was perceived as a fallen creature and would always yearn for more power. — Roy Moore
Whether the Sikhs want to worship in Wisconsin or the Christians want to worship in Texas or the Jews want to worship in New York, we’re living under the magnificent umbrella of a Constitution that says we can. — Marianne Williamson
Just as the formation of the family is basic to the formation of the state, so the states themselves are the only units that can form the basic constitution of a viable international organization. — Leon Bourgeois
If the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government. — Tommy Franks
The Constitution grants only Congress – not the president – the power ‘to borrow money on the credit of the United States.’ — Laurence Tribe
So too, in forming a constitution, or in enacting rules of procedure, or making canons, the people do not merely passively assent, but actively cooperate. They have, in all these matters, the same authority as the clergy. — Charles Hodge
It must always be remembered that what the Constitution forbids is not all searches and seizures, but unreasonable searches and seizures. — Potter Stewart
The pursuit of happiness is in our Constitution. We’re all entitled to have the best we can — Loretta Swit
That’s the key: get the constitution in place. Get rule of law in place, capital will come, electricity will follow. — Steve King
Being about to land on the soil of North Carolina, the general commanding desires his soldiers to remember that they are here to support the Constitution and the laws, to put down rebellion, and to protect the persons and property of the loyal and peaceable citizens of the State. — Ambrose Burnside
The Constitution’s Preamble, its renowned introductory passage, was written by a man with a peg-leg. Which, if you think about it, gives our Constitution hardly a leg to stand on. — Kevin Bleyer
As a member of this court I am not justified in writing my private notions of policy into the Constitution, no matter how deeply I may cherish them or how mischievous I may deem their disregard. — Felix Frankfurter
We current justices read the Constitution in the only way that we can: as 20th-century Americans. — William J. Brennan
The notion that Congress can change the meaning given a constitutional provision by the Court is subversive of the function of judicial review; and it is not the less so because the Court promises to allow it only when the Constitution is moved to the left. — Robert Bork
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. — Lamar S. Smith
We know that this man has a proven record of being a ‘strict constructionist.’ Our President has given us his word that he will interpret the Constitution rather than make new laws from the bench. — Rod Parsley
Unfortunately, people are re-interpreting the Constitution as a living document, and it’s not. It’s a solid-based document and it shouldn’t be played with. — Chuck Norris
It seems that the right of freedom of speech that was enshrined in numerous constitutions is now under attack by religious institutions. — Salman Rushdie
Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men. — Gerald R. Ford
The right of petition, I have said, was not conferred on the People by the Constitution, but was a pre-existing right, reserved by the People out of the grants of power made to Congress. — Caleb Cushing
Societies cannot move forward without law, and our constitution is the cornerstone of the law and our National Assembly is its umbrella and fortress. — Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa
When we live up to our Constitution, let’s form a Conga line around the Capitol and bungee jump off the dome. — Paula Poundstone
The Constitution has not greatly bothered any wartime President. — Francis Biddle
It is unfortunate that Americans are no longer aware of what the constitution says and what their rights are. Because of that, we are often very passive about what happens when the government violates those rights. — James Bovard
The Illinois Constitution was written before they realized they’d have a city the size of Chicago in the state. The constitution had severe limits on the ability of any city to raise monies through taxes and bonds. When Chicago grew explosively, they had to come up with ways of getting more money to do more things. — Gary Krist
Drafting a constitution is only the first step. The constitution has to be granted legitimacy by open discussion and a fair, representative referendum. — Emma Bonino
Conservatives who believe that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the plain meaning of its language and the original intent of the Framers have long been troubled by the court’s decisions expanding the commerce clause to authorize Congress to regulate the most local of matters within a state’s borders. — David Limbaugh
Our society cannot progress while our constitution stands still. — Charles Edison
The capacity of the commonwealth government created under the local constitution to exercise governmental powers in local affairs is like that of local government in the states of the union in regard to non-federal affairs at the local level. — Dick Thornburgh
I am sworn to uphold the Constitution as Andy Johnson understands it and interprets it. — Andrew Johnson
We have a tremendous lack of knowledge of how far we have gotten away from the Constitution of the United States. Democrats and Republicans alike have taken us away from the original intent. You see, I believe in this document as our founding fathers intended it. — Paul Broun
Egypt had the first constitution in the Middle East that allowed for liberty. And it had democracy. — Ahmed Zewail
Every generation gets the Constitution that it deserves. As the central preoccupations of an era make their way into the legal system, the Supreme Court eventually weighs in, and nine lawyers in robes become oracles of our national identity. — Noah Feldman
I think the federal government should be doing only what the Constitution says it should be. We don’t have authority under the federal Constitution to have a big federal criminal justice system. — Paul Broun
The Constitution says that troops can be in the Philippines if there’s a treaty that provides for it, and we have two treaties with the United States. — Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
I love this country because I didn’t always have it. Freedom, food, water that is clean, Constitution – these are not things I take for granted. — Sayed Badreya
The constitution ought to specifically state that every nation is left entirely independent and supreme in its internal affairs, such as regulating emigration and all other similar matters. — George William Norris
While men’s rights are guaranteed by specific language in the Constitution, women’s equal rights aren’t mentioned. — Carolyn Maloney
Just because there are people who violate rules, behave illegally and so on, it does not mean that everybody is like that. On the contrary, if you watch certain judges, you observe that they honestly try to implement what they believe the Constitution says and just put it into effect. — Leonid Hurwicz
Syria, for all its problems, at least has a constitution that guarantees equal protection of citizens. Around the world, we have seen that this is essential where Christians are a minority and are not protected. — Franklin Graham
Segregation was a burden for many blacks, because the end of the civil war and the amendments added to the constitution elevated expectations beyond reality in some respects. — Ed Smith
It is illegal to be a member of an organization that is challenging the constitution by armed force. — Meles Zenawi
Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor. — Thomas B. Macaulay
In our Constitution governmental power is divided among three separate branches of the national government, three separate branches of State governments, and the peoples of the several States. — Robert W. Welch, Jr.
The Constitution has a good share of deliberately open-ended guarantees, like rights to due process of law, equal protection of the law, and freedom from unreasonable searches. — David Souter
We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our property and our liberty and our property under the Constitution. — Charles Evans Hughes
The Constitution does not demand that you or I buy anything. — Mike Conaway
The Constitution is a document that should only be amended with great caution. — Carl Levin
Do we really want the FCC to conduct investigations and issue warnings to radio talk show hosts nationwide who simply discuss the important issues of our time? The Constitution says ‘freedom of speech,’ not ‘freedom of government-approved fair speech in rationed amounts.’ — Tim Walberg
Nothing that we have authorized conflicts with any law regarding privacy or any provision of the constitution. — John Ashcroft
The constitutions of Maryland and New York are founded in higher wisdom. — Ezra Stiles
I hope they’re going to learn, and as a result of our response, that it isn’t going to work. They’re not going to change our life, they’re not going to have us throw out our Constitution, and they’re not going to chase us out of the Middle East. — Paul Bremer
As the Constitution endures, persons in every generation can invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom. — Anthony Kennedy
The constitution is the ultimate custodian of social will and its making should be accorded all due diligence. — Mwai Kibaki
The constitution is for us all to live together, a common life, we need each other. — Pope Theodoros II
Our constitution should be inspired by the philosophy of the Koran with principles that are set in stone and not open to the whims of individual judges, as is the case now. In particular, the constitution should protect every citizen’s basic human rights regardless of their sex, status or sect. Everyone should be equal before the law. — Basmah bint Saud
Over the course of 19 years on the Supreme Court, I learned some lessons about the Constitution of the United States. — David Souter
If the provisions of the constitution be not upheld when they pinch as well as when they comfort, they may as well be abandoned. — George Sutherland
