Ezra Stiles Quotes

I've been reading this little book. It's called the Russian constitution. And it says that the only source of power in Russia is the people. So I don't want to hear those who say we're appealing to the authorities. Who's the power here?

Resolved-1st, That the People are the source of all legitimate power; and, That We are the People.

In all our associations; in all our agreements let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim - that all power was originally lodged in, and consequently is derived from, the people.

The end of all political associations is, the preservation of the rights of man, which rights are liberty, property, and security; that the nation is the source of all sovereignty derived from it...

The people who own the country ought to govern it.

The people are, in fact, the fountain of all power.

Sovereignty resides originally in the people, and in each individual with regard to himself; and that it is the transferring and uniting the several rights of individuals in the person of the sovereign, that constitutes him such, and really produces sovereignty.

All power is inherent in the people.

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.

Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

Power in politics, sovereignty in America is with we the people, and that is the path to turning this country around: empowering the people.

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

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.

All political power is a trust.

In a democracy, supposedly we hold power by what we do at the ballot box, so therefore the more we know about political power the better our choices should be and the better, in theory, our democracy should be.

The fountain of power remaineth most eminently in the people; therefore it is unlimited in the people, and bounded and limited in the king, and so less in the king than in the people.

He who is the most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power is as eager after for the prerogatives of government.

The government is just the people acting together.

Political liberty is nothing else but the diffusion of power.

The public power of all society is above every soul contained in the same society.

The Sovereign: The People

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it …

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.

A right not accompanied by the sword is a lost right.

The will of the people... is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object