Montesquieu Quotes

Society is well governed when its people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law.

As Members of Congress, we swear an oath to uphold the United States Constitution. It means something to be an American because we believe in our country, we believe in our people, and we believe in our constitution.

Let every American … swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country and never to tolerate their violation by others. Let reverence for the laws … become the political religion of the nation.

How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

We have to be a nation of laws.

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

Real patriotism is a willingness to challenge the government when it's wrong.

Someone who is a good person should have no fear of the government whatsoever.

Laws are important precisely because in a democracy they reflect the attitudes and aspirations of those they govern.

What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law.

We must be loyal to the forum of our government.

The Supreme Court is a menace to the welfare of the nation.

I feel sorry for those who measure their patriotism by how often and how viciously they can criticize our government.

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.

The highest test of a people's fitness for free institutions is their willingness to obey law.

We believe in American government, and we fully expect that those who now denigrate it, and even despise it, will soon or late find themselves turning to it in necessity, even desperation.

The national policy would be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality

...the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

...no country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.

The most difficult thing to build up is the rule of law. America already had it when their nation began.

… disagreement with the policies of the government is not evidence of lack of patriotism.

In order for the Constitution to work, you have to have law-abiding people. You have to have people willing to obey the Constitution, willing to follow the law. Obama doesn't care. He is the law.