John Marshall Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
-
“What are the maxims of Democracy? A strict observance of justice and public faith, and a steady adherence to virtue.”
-- John Marshall -
“The power to tax is the power to destroy.”
-- John Marshall -
“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.”
-- John Marshall -
“The power to tax involves the power to destroy;...the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create....”
-- John Marshall -
“To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well”
-- John Marshall -
“It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.”
-- John Marshall -
“In a free government almost all other rights would become worthless if the government possessed power over the private fortune of every citizen.”
-- John Marshall -
“A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law.”
-- John Marshall -
“To obtain a just compromise, concession must not only mutual-it must be equal also....There can be no hope that either will yield more than it gets in return.”
-- John Marshall -
“Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.”
-- John Marshall -
“The law does not expect a man to be prepared to defend every act of his life which may be suddenly and without notice alleged against him.”
-- John Marshall -
“It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is...If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each...This is of the very essence of judicial duty.”
-- John Marshall -
“Seldom has a battle, in which greater numbers were not engaged, been so important in its consequences as that of Cowpens.”
-- John Marshall -
“No principle of general law is more universally acknowledged, than the perfect equality of nations. Russia and Geneva have equal rights. It results from this equality, that no one can rightfully impose a rule on another....As no nation can prescribe a rule for others, none can make a law of nations.”
-- John Marshall -
“The constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. This is the very essence of judicial duty.”
-- John Marshall -
“When a law is in its nature a contract, when absolute rights have vested under that contract, a repeal of the law cannot divest those rights.”
-- John Marshall -
“The most lively fancy aided by the strongest description cannot equal the reality of the opera.”
-- John Marshall -
“What is it that makes us trust our judges? Their independence in office and manner of appointment.”
-- John Marshall -
“I have always believed that national character... depends more on the female part of society than is generally imagined. Precepts from the lips of a beloved mother... sink deep in the heart, and make an impression which is seldom entirely effaced.”
-- John Marshall -
“The French Revolution will be found to have had great influence on the strength of parties, and on the subsequent political transactions of the United States.”
-- John Marshall -
“Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful.”
-- John Marshall -
“No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States and compounding the American people into one common mass.”
-- John Marshall -
“It is the peculiar province of the legislature to prescribe general rules for the government of society; the application of those rules to individuals in society would seem to be the duty of other departments.”
-- John Marshall -
“Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.”
-- John Marshall -
“The acme of judicial distinction means the ability to look a lawyer straight in the eyes for two hours and not hear a damned word he says.”
-- John Marshall -
“The federal government is acknowledged by all to be one of enumerated powers. The principle, that it can exercise only the powers granted to it . . . is now universally admitted.”
-- John Marshall -
“The particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.”
-- John Marshall -
“The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will.”
-- John Marshall -
“The Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”
-- John Marshall -
“A corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law.”
-- John Marshall
