Marquis de Lafayette Quotes

The Framers of the Constitution knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.

I wholeheartedly support the aspirations of the Ukrainian people for a democratic, free and just society where the rule of law prevails without corruption or government violence directed against citizens.

Let us contend for all the rights guaranteed by the constitution of our native country.

Senator, I do not believe you have ever taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States with fewer reservations than I have or would now. Nor do I believe you are more attached to the theories and practices of Americanism than I am. I rest my answer on that statement.

Blind submission to the Administration of the government is not devotion to the country or the Constitution. The administration is not the government.

It has been and is said of myself and the people over whom I have the honor to preside, that they frequently indulge in strictures upon the acts of men who are intrusted with governmental affairs, and the Government itself sometimes does not wholly escape. Now, sir, I will simply state what I know to be true, that no people exists who are more friendly to the Government of the United States than the people of this Territory. The Constitution they revere, the laws they seek to honor. But the non-execution of those laws in times past, for our protection, and the abuse of power in the hands of those intrusted therewith, even in the hands of those whom we have supported for office, even betraying us in the hour of our greatest peril and extremity, but withholding the due execution of laws designed for the protection of all the citizens of the United States: it is for this we have cause of complaint, not the want of good and wholesome laws, but the execution of the same, in the true meaning and spirit of the constitution.

The whole point is to accommodate one right with another. Yes, that will leave some people disappointed, even angry, but the idea of the Constitution is to promote freedom, not to make everyone happy.

Speech is an essential mechanism of democracy, for it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people. [...] The right of citizens to inquire, to hear, to speak, and to use information to reach consensus is a precondition to enlightened self-government and a necessary means to protect it. [...] By taking the right to speak from some and giving it to others, the Government deprives the disadvantaged person or class of the right to use speech to strive to establish worth, standing, and respect for the speaker’s voice. The Government may not by these means deprive the public of the right and privilege to determine for itself what speech and speakers are worthy of consideration. The First Amendment protects speech and speaker, and the ideas that flow from each.

In a democracy, the citizens are supposed to have all the power, and the government is supposed to be the means by which the citizens exercise that power. But when you have a surveillance state, the state has all the power, and citizens have very little.

As prime minister of Iraq, I am required to act in accordance with the Constitution to protect all of the Iraqi people and to keep our country united.

Of course in a democracy the government and the citizens have to abide by court rulings, even if we don't like them or don't agree with them.

We want to bring order and respect for the constitution.

After 200 years, the 1st Amendment remains only as strong, or as weak, as the citizens it is designed to protect.

The first duty of a state is to provide for its own conservation. Until that point is secured, it can preserve and protect nothing else. But, if possible, it has greater interest in acting according to strict law than even the subject himself. For if the people see that the law is violated to crush them, they will certainly despise the law. They, or their party, will be easily led to violate it, whenever they can, by all the means in their power. Except in cases of direct war, whenever government abandons law, it proclaims anarchy.

The power of citizenship as a shield against oppression was widely known from the example of Paul's Roman citizenship, which sent the centurion scurrying to his higher-ups with the message: "Take heed what thou doest; for this man is a Roman.

It is easy to protect the rights to responsible citizens; only a democracy will protect the rights of those who are deemed irresponsible.

The Egyptian people have their own free will and the Army and the police are there to implement that will.

A democratic state too gentlemanly to learn all it can about threats us a state that betrayed its most fundamental responsibilities.

The decisions we make about the Internet don't affect just the Internet – they are answers to basic questions about the relationship each citizen has to the government and about the extent to which we trust one another with the full range of fundamental rights granted by the Constitution.

It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive. ... And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment — the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution.

Is it possible to tolerate the state order being undermined from morning to night because doing so is supposedly a democratic obligation.

I care more about the country than what happens to me. But we can't allow the law to become a political weapon or agree to scare people away from standing up for their rights, no matter how good the deal. I'm not going to be part of that.

In order to exercise the right to freedom of speech conferred by the Constitution, one should fulfill the social responsibility of a Chinese citizen.

It is a fundamental principle of democracy that citizens obey the law or incur whatever penalty applies to its breaking.