Marquis de Lafayette Quotes

It is supposed an undoubted right of Englishmen not to be taxed but by their own consent given through their representatives.

The touchstone of everything that can be concluded as a law for a people lies in the question whether the people could have imposed such a law on itself.

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.

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.

[There is no] right of Congress ... to force a good thing upon a people who are unwilling to receive it. The great principle is the right of every community to judge and decide for itself whether a thing is right or wrong, whether it would be good or evil to adopt it.... Whenever you put a limitation upon the right of any people to decide what laws they want, you have destroyed the fundamental principle of self-government.

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.

Civil liberty is the power of a civil society or state to govern itself by its own discretion or by laws of its own making, without being subject to the impositions of any power in appointing and directing which the collective body of the people have no concern and over which they have no control

Just what is it that America stands for? If she stands for one thing more than another it is for the sovereignty of self-governing people.

I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free.

I would like to state that my personal opinions are that the people of every country should decide by themselves what kind of government they want.

By nature, every individual has the right to govern himself; and governments, whether founded on majorities or minorities, must derive their right from the assent, expressed or implied, of the governed,, and be subject to such limitations as they may impose.

I feel that the majority of people should decide for themselves what kind of government they want.

Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.

Public officers are the servants and agents of the people, to execute the laws which the people have made.

Magna Carta is such a fellow that he will have no sovereign.

In France, and other nations, the mere will of the Prince is Law, his word takes off any man's head, imposeth taxes, or seizes any man's estate …. In England the Law is both the measure and the bound of every Subject's duty and allegiance, each man having a fixed Fundamental Right born with him, as to freedom of his person and property in his estate, which he cannot be deprived of, but either by his consent, or some crime, for which the law has imposed such a penalty or forfeiture.

The submission of free people to the executive authority of government, is no more than a compliance with laws which they themselves have enacted.

I disapprove... of the proposal to subject the Indians to our laws without their consent,... It is so little in concord with our principles of government.

No people must be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not wish to live.

Let each class of dissenting socialists stand aloof from our Republic and experiment to their hearts content on their own wiser system. It is their right to do so uninjured and at their own cost.

The rule of liberty that all government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, applies only to those who are capable of self government. We govern the Indians without their consent, we govern our territories without their consent, we govern our children without their consent.

Liberty Dearer Than Union

I cannot subscribe to the omnipotence of a State Legislature.

The principle of "the consent of the governed" is distinctly American and should be our world-wide slogan.

I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce against the will of the people.