Michael Ignatieff Quotes

In our system of democracy, our government works on a system of checks and balances. Instead of stripping power from the courts, I believe we should follow the process prescribed in our Constitution - consideration of a Constitutional amendment.

The Founders recognized that Government is quite literally a necessary evil, that there must be opposition, between its various branches, and between political parties, for these are the only ways to temper the individual's greed for power and the electorates' desires for peace by submission to coercion or blandishment.

The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded.

I believe that Americans should be deeply skeptical of government power. You cannot trust people in power. The founders knew that. That's why they divided power among three branches, to set interest against interest.

The Framers (of the Constitution) were not concerned primarily with favoring one type of government over another, but with limiting the power of government, regardless of its source.

Our devotion to individual freedom limits our readiness to give central government the power to override our traditional power structure.

The essence of democracy is how to restrict government power; this is the most important reason why China so badly needs democracy. The overconcentration of government powers without checks and balances is the root cause of so many social problems.

How do we preserve our civil rights, our traditions as a liberal democracy, in a time when government power is expanding and is more and more difficult to check?

There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

The Tea Party movement as I perceive it is all about recognizing the difference between state and federal powers. And that there are limits to federal power that need to be respected.

The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.

The founders had a strong distrust for centralized power in a federal government. So they created a government with checks and balances. This was to prevent any branch of the government from becoming too powerful.

You can't give the government the power to do good without also giving it the power to do bad - in fact, to do anything it wants.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

Our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule.

Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.

Our Founding Fathers crafted a constitutional Republic for the first time in the history of the world because they were shaping a form of government that would not have the failures of a democracy in it, but had the representation of democracy in it.

What's brilliant about the United States system of government is separation of power. Not only the executive, legislative, judicial branches, but also the independence of the military from civilians, an independent media and press, an independent central bank.

The civilized world needs to think about a decision when single politicians are not allowed to stay in power.

Government is necessary for our survival. We need government in order to survive. The Founding Fathers created a special place for government. It is called the Constitution.

The only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed.

The Democrats have come right out and said it: the power of the central government shall have no limits at all.

A government is not legitimate merely because it exists.

The U.S. Constitution is the basic framework for the greatest democracy on Earth. Some of my colleagues find it easy to amend it. I don't.