Limiting Authority Quotes

Any who wield a large amount of power should always feel the check of power. The very principle on which the nation exists is that no person shall rise above power.

I do not believe that the President has any powers at all except such as the Constitution expressly gives him or such as are necessarily inferred.

The only check upon our own exercise of power is our own sense of self-restraint.

I created no authority that wasn't already there under the constitution.

I wanted to prevent people from giving them too much power. I see that as a pattern. I wanted that to come to an end as soon as possible.

… power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.

Every device employed to bolster individual freedom must have as its chief purpose the impairment of the absoluteness of power. The indications are that such an impairment is brought about not by strengthening the individual and pitting him against the possessors of power, but by distributing and diversifying power and pitting one category or unit of power against the other. Where power is one, the defeated individual, however strong and resourceful, can have no refuge and no recourse.

The Constitution is designed to inconvenience one person from taking us to war. War is a very solemn and sobering and extraordinary act, and it should not be granted to one person.

The Founders deliberately limited presidential authority.

These our great natural rights we keep to ourselves; we will not have them tampered with; respecting them we give to you no commission whatsoever.

I do not wish to see a governor within my government

We shall never prevent the abuse of power if we are not prepared to limit power in a way which occasionally may prevent its use for desirable purposes.

That this privilege of giving or of withholding our monies is an important barrier against the undue exertion of prerogative, which if left altogether without control may be exercised to our great oppression; and all history shews how efficacious is its intercession for redress of grievances and re-establishment of rights, and how improvident would be the surrender of so powerful a mediator

If there is a single trait in our character that has historically set us apart from other nations, it is our determination to limit the authority of those who rule over us.