Benjamin Franklin Quotes

Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle.

The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it.

Our Constitution was framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of Christ, but the sacredness of humanity. Ours is the first government made by the people and for the people. It is the only nation with which the gods have had nothing to do.

The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it.

Our system of checks and balances .... The people keep the politicians from stealing too much, and the politicians keep the people from getting too crazy.

We believe that all legislative assemblies should confine themselves to constitutional principles; and that all such laws should be implicitly obeyed by every American.

Our nation has no right to expect that it will always have wise and humane rulers, sincerely attached to the principles of the Constitution. Wicked men, ambitious of power, with hatred of liberty and law, may fill the place once occupied by Washington and Lincoln.

I love the government and the Constitution of the United States, but I do not love the damned rascals who administer the government.

I trust the American People more than American Institutions.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

If monarchy is corrupting - and it is - wait till you see what overt empire does to us.

We are a nation of laws with respect and recognition of the rule of law. We are not an imperialist government with a monarch abiding by the rule of one man.

The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion.

The whole structure of African government, as far back as we know, was based on tyranny. One guy ran the show. Chiefs like Chaka and Mzilikazi committed terrible atrocities. That is the tradition from which modern African rulers spring. It won't change easily overnight.

The great constitutional corrective in the hands of the people against usurpation of power, or corruption by their agents is the right of suffrage; and this when used with calmness and deliberation will prove strong enough.

a government which goes counter to the will of the nation must be overthrown at once... It is dangerous to drive the people to despair and force them to demand by violence that which they as yet seek only by constitutional means.

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

Our new government is now in full Operation, but how it will move or what will be the End of it I can scarcely conjecture. I am not yet in Love with it, & I doubt if I ever shall be

The people in Congress have no interest in preserving the Constitution because they are interested in power.

The people are good; the government is not good.

The purpose of a written constitution is to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril that their acquiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those rights.

People now do not want a constitution framed for them by their representatives—they want to pass on each section of it themselves.

The record of Arab regimes is disgraceful and outrageous … worse than that of the occupier or the colonialist.

The contention that...the Constitution is to be disregarded if it stands in the way of that which is deemed of the public advantage...is destructive of the whole theory upon which our American Commonwealths have been founded.

Our democracy has been marred by imperialism.