Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [1-20] of 65 Executive Orders quotesExecutive Orders QuotesExecutive Orders Next 20 quotes Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.~ Lord Acton I cannot accept, your canon that we are to judge pope and king unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.~ Lord Acton A question arises whether all the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, shall be left in this body? I think a people cannot be long free, nor ever happy, whose government is in one Assembly.~ John Adams The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.~ Samuel Adams Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool.~ Paul Begala Perhaps the most obvious political effect of controlled news is the advantage it gives powerful people in getting their issues on the political agenda and defining those issues in ways likely to influence their resolution.~ W. Lance Bennett Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen... If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.~ Justice Louis D. Brandeis The mortalist enemy unto knowledge, and that which hath done the greatest execution unto truth, has been a preemptory adhesion unto authority.~ Sir Thomas Browne If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in this country.~ James Buchanan All bad precedents began as justifiable measures.~ Gaius Julius Caesar 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 cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny.~ William Ellery Channing It will be necessary for us to be a nation of men, and not laws.~ Dick Cheney The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.~ Sir Winston Churchill The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charges known to the law, and particularly to deny him judgment by his peers for an indefinite period, is in the highest degree odious, and is the foundation of all totalitarian governments...Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilisation.~ Winston Churchill During war, the laws are silent.~ Quintus Tullius Cicero We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans...~ Bill Clinton [A] possible further difficulty is cited, namely, that arising from the Constitutional provision that only Congress may declare war. This argument is countered with the contention that a treaty will override this barrier, let alone the fact that our participation in such police action as might be recommended by the international security organization need not necessarily be construed as war.~ Council on Foreign Relations When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.~ Clarence S. Darrow Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.~ Denis Diderot Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print