William Henry Harrison Quotes

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.

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

The Constitution was about a limitation on power.

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.

Americans are naturally suspicious of too much government and they see divided government as a safeguard.

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

A democracy cannot wage war. When you go to war, you pass a law giving extraordinary power to the President. The people of the country assume when the emergency is over, the rights and powers that were temporarily delegated to the Chief Executive will be returned to the states, counties and to the people.

All our rights are gradually eroded as government gets bigger.

The Constitution was framed fundamentally as a bulwark against governmental power.

To strengthen a weak government, we must reduce its power.

There exists in modem America the necessity for protecting all of us from arbitrary action by governments more powerful and more pervasive than any in our ancestors’ time.

The greatest threat to our freedom is an all powerful federal government.

The great object in view is to limit and qualify the powers of government.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

Who are a free people? Not those over whom government is exercised, but those who live under a government so constitutionally checked and controlled that proper provision is made against its being otherwise exercised

We can’t trust government to limit its powers to the Constitution.

The great danger to our institutions does not appear to me to be in a usurpation by the Government of power not granted by the people, but by the accumulation in one of the departments of that which was assigned to others. Limited as are the powers which have been granted, still enough have been granted to constitute a despotism if concentrated in one of the departments.

Those who seek always to limit the power of government are of good heart and conscience. Those who seek to expand the power of government are base tyrants.

I start with a concern about the growth of federal government. I start with a perspective concerned about the growth of that power, and containing it within the bounds of the Constitution.

When power is for sale, then government power should be severely limited. When power is abused, then the less power the better.

The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.

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.

Liberal democracy has endured because its institutions are designed for handling morally hazardous forms of coercive power. It puts the question of how far government should go to the cross fire of adversarial review.

There has been so much power concentrated. There is no leash on that power anymore and Americans face the situation that this power is getting momentum with each passing year with each presidency.

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.