Robert Caro Quotes

Look, I'm a member of the House of Lords and I'm the first to admit that I don't understand how one gets new laws through.

As long as there are only 3 to 4 people on the floor, the country is in good hands. It's only when you have 50 to 60 in the Senate that you want to be concerned.

Senate: A body of elderly gentlemen charge with high duties and misdemeanors.

A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people.

The Senate is a remarkable institution. It is unique. There is no other body, no other political body, no other democratic legislature in the world quite like the U.S. Senate.

Being 'at the mercy of legislative majorities' is merely another way of describing the basic American plan: representative democracy.

Upon you, fellow-citizens, as the representatives of the States and the people, is wisely devolved the legislative power.

I've always said that I favour an elected second chamber and I think it's important that there are members of the House of Lords who are willing to vote for their own demise.

I'm interested in being part of a majority in the Senate.

The virtue, spirit, and essence of a House of Commons consists in its being the express image of the feelings of the nation. It was not instituted to be a control upon the people, as of late it has been taught

Logically, in a society ostensibly grounded on representative government, it would seem reasonable that a majority of the people in a State would elect a majority of that State’s legislators.

The Senate of the United States has been both extravagantly praised and unreasonably disparaged, according to the predisposition and temper of its various critics…. The truth is, in this case as in so many others, something quite commonplace and practical. The Senate is just what the mode of its election and the conditions of public life in this country make it.

The governor has led the way, but he's not an emperor. The legislature has to act. He cannot pass a bill by himself.

We demand that the House of Representatives shall again become a deliberative body, controlled by the majority of the people's Representatives and not be the Speaker ...

The people never have and never will be able to understand how the will of a majority of the House of Representatives can be set aside by the judgment of a few men on a powerful committee.

No check is necessary on a Legislature composed as the national Legislature would be, with two branches—an upper and a lower House.

The election of the Executive ought to be by the national Legislature, that then respect will be paid to that character best qualified

State Legislatures were better qualified to elect the Members than the people were

We cannot afford to have some future Amendment, destructive of our whole theory of government, manipulated through the requisite number of legislatures, with the people standing helpless to prevent it.

Congress is the voice, the conscience, and the judgment of the American people

The EU suffers from … a structural democratic deficit. Of its seven institutions, just one—the European Parliament—is directly elected by the people, and it cannot initiate legislation.

The Congress plays a central role in our constitutional structure.

We tend to think of the House as a less historically significant legislative body than the Senate. There are more representatives than there are senators, they're up for re-election every two years, and many come and go without having much of an impact.

At the federal level, as a member of Congress, you have one vote out of 435, and in the Senate, it's one out of 100. So, the ability to get some stuff done exists as a much larger opportunity at a local level than in the federal government.

I think the thing that's impressed me the most has been the fantastic professionalism of the officials in the Senate.