Joseph Warren Quotes

No man is good enough to govern another without the other man's consent. I say this is the leading principle, the sheet anchor of American republicanism. … the just powers of governments are derived from the consent of the governed.

Our courts and law, our on-going experiment in self-governance, these parts of our social fabric are precious.

It seems advisable, that we should no longer have a single man to rule over us—the rule of one is neither good nor pleasant …. I vote, therefore, that we do away with monarchy, and raise the people to power. For the people are all in all.

Democracy is an open wound that the East has been carrying for centuries.

Whatever the People has last ordained shall be held as binding by law.

The people, have chosen to be governed under such and such principles. They have not chosen to be governed or proposed to submit upon any other.

Laws form the most important portion of a nation's history.

The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom

The people can never err more than in supporting that by multiplying their representatives beyond a certain limit, they strengthen the barrier against the government of a few.

Democracy and freedom … are based on democratic institutions, the rule of law, and a civil society. None of these Arab states have any of these to any significant degree.

America has shown how a free people can found a democracy shorn of all the terrors which for so many ages haunted the dreams of philosophers.

Democracy can be noisy and messy. But it works.

We must bring the rule of law to its full fruition in the United States, and when we do, we will have achieved the goals and rhetoric of our Founding Fathers.

When our Founders created this great experiment in self-governance, the House of Representatives became, by design, the body closest to the people. We are the most accountable, and we must be the most transparent.

We are a constitutional democracy. We must deal with things properly within the framework of the law and then the constitution.

In a nation based on the 'consent of the governed,' judges are supposed to apply the laws the people have assented to.

Democracy is our commitment. It is our great legacy, a legacy we simply cannot compromise. Democracy is in our DNA.

We are a country based on the rule of law.

My loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law.

We do not believe in authoritarian rule.

Our government depends upon the rule of law.

America is fundamentally exceptional. No one in the history of the world had ever done anything to compare with what the Founders did, creating a fragile mechanism by which men and women could actually govern themselves.

We want to bring order and respect for the constitution.

The Constitution is worth saving, the rule of law is worth saving, democracy is worth saving, but these things can and will be lost if everyone waits around for someone else.

The words of the Declaration of Independence, as given effect by Washington...are to be accepted as real, and not as empty phrases...that in very truth this is a government by the people themselves, that the Constitution is theirs, that the courts are theirs, that all the government agents and agencies are theirs... It is for the people themselves finally to decide all questions of public policy and to have their decision made effective...We here, in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world.