Bill Of Rights Quotes

“I have a problem with people who take the Constitution loosely and the Bible literally.”
― Bill Maher

“The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles.”
― Jeff Cooper, The Art of the Rifle

“If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.

[Response to questionnaire in Saturday Review, October 29 1960]”
― John F. Kennedy

“I love my country, not my government.”
― Jesse Ventura

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
― James Madison, U.S. Constitution (Saddlewire)

“I was astonished, bewildered. This was America, a country where, whatever its faults, people could speak, write, assemble, demonstrate without fear. It was in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. We were a democracy...

But I knew it wasn't a dream; there was a painful lump on the side of my head...

The state and its police were not neutral referees in a society of contending interests. They were on the side of the rich and powerful. Free speech? Try it and the police will be there with their horses, their clubs, their guns, to stop you.

From that moment on, I was no longer a liberal, a believer in the self-correcting character of American democracy. I was a radical, believing that something fundamental was wrong in this country--not just the existence of poverty amidst great wealth, not just the horrible treatment of black people, but something rotten at the root. The situation required not just a new president or new laws, but an uprooting of the old order, the introduction of a new kind of society--cooperative, peaceful, egalitarian.”
― Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

“You have to remember, rights don't come in groups we shouldn't have 'gay rights'; rights come as individuals, and we wouldn't have this major debate going on. It would be behavior that would count, not what person belongs to what group.”
― Ron Paul

“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

“The answer to 1984 is 1776”
― Alex E. Jones

“Civil Wars happen when the victimized are armed. Genocide happens when they are not.”
― A.E. Samaan

“The way liberals are interpreting the First Amendment today is that it prevents anyone who is religious from being in government.”
― Rush Limbaugh, The Way Things Ought to Be

“Revealingly, the central function of the Constitution as law--the supreme law--was to impose limitations not on the behavior of ordinary citizens but on the federal government. The government, and those who ran it, were not placed outside the law, but expressly targeted by it. Indeed, the Bill of Rights is little more than a description of the lines that the most powerful political officials are barred from crossing, even if they have the power to do so and even when the majority of citizens might wish them to do so.”
― Glenn Greenwald, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful

“The Bill of Rights is the bone structure of the living and breathing United States of America. The Bill of Rights is the embodiment of the “inalienable rights” dictated by the Declaration of Independence, upon which every Federal law, State law, State constitution and the United States Constitution are based upon. Compromise the Bill of Rights, and you compromise the bone structure of the living and breathing Union. Compromise the Bill of Rights, and the United States is nothing but a corpse awaiting decay and a return to dust.”
― A.E. Samaan

“The 2nd Amendment exists for the same reason "Madame la Guillotine" existed; to cut off the head of a corrupt governing class.”
― A.E. Samaan

“John Locke and Thomas Jefferson both were great men in politics; however, they both were wrong in their beliefs of what rights men should have. Both men left out one of the most important rights than all humans should have and that right is 'equality'.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“Education on the value of free speech and the other freedoms reserved by the Bill of Rights, about what happens when you don't have them, and about how to exercise and protect them, should be an essential prerequisite for being an American citizen — or indeed a citizen of any nation, the more so to the degree that such rights remain unprotected.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“John Locke and Thomas Jefferson both were great men in politics; however, they both were wrong in their beliefs of what rights men should have. Both men left out one of the most important rights that all humans should have and that right is 'equality'.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“My definition of 'Freedom of Speech' is as follows. The right to speak freely anywhere at anytime about any subject without the fear of harm, reprimand, punishment, or other. Until this is true, we have no 'Freedom of Speech'.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“The 'Right to Bear Arms' has been grossly misunderstood and defined wrongly by people with unconstitutional motives. In order to understand why this 'Right' was written, you must understand the people who wrote it and their beliefs.

The 'Right to Bear Arms' means that every U.S. citizen has a right to own firearms in order to protect this country from their government and themselves from each other. This law has nothing to do with owning firearms for the purpose of protecting this country from foreign attacks; although, it would be a huge benefit in such an attack.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“#IHaveTheRightTo”
― Chessy Prout, I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor's Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope

“Unfortunately, we do not always understand the Bill of Rights as well as we might. Many people seem to think that it guarantees us the right to do almost anything we want. That is not the case; there are limits. For example, the right to free speech does not give us the right to say slanderous things about others, to cry fire in a crowded theater as a joke, or to discuss military secrets with our friends. The right to peaceable assembly does not permit us to gather a crowd of demonstrators in the middle of a busy street. As interpreted by the Supreme Court, the rights of the individuals must be balanced against the needs of the society as a whole.”
― Christopher Collier, Creating the Constitution: 1787

“The Bill of Rights is largely a prescription for preventing government from restricting the flow of information and ideas. But the Founding Fathers did not foresee that tyranny by government might be superseded by another sort of problem altogether, namely, the corporate state, which through television now controls the flow of public discourse in America.”
― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

“Bill of Rights: (n.) official tally of how much our rights cost to keep.”
― Sol Luckman, The Angel's Dictionary

“Independent thinking is a crucial precursor to political independence.”
― A.E. Samaan

“Finally, Madison dismissed religion as an effective restraint on oppressive mass behavior: "The inefficacy of this restraint on individuals is well known," and experience shows that religion "has been much oftener a motive to oppression than a restraint from it.”
― Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition

“a majority when united by a common interest or passion cannot be restrained from oppressing the minority, what remedy can be found in a republican Government, where the majority must ultimately decide?”
― Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition

“In short, there is no reason to believe that the authors of the Second Amendment thought it had anything to do with private ownership of arms or the personal use of guns, such as hunting or defense of the home.”
― Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition

“citizen armies would be relied on, rather than a standing army, to the extent possible, for defense against foreign enemies.”
― Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition

“The Bill of Rights slipped quietly into the Constitution and passed from sight and public consciousness until given a new and very different life by the Supreme Court more than a century later.”
― Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition

“You sabotage any chance at arriving at “equity” if you compromise or debase the bedrock concept of “equality before the law.”
― A.E. Samaan