Quotes by John Marshall - Page 1

The power to tax is the power to destroy.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Inspirational
Libertarian
Taxation
Tax
Destroy
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I fear we may live to see another revolution.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
American Revolution
May
Revolution
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A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Government
Constitution
Law
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The constitution controls any legislative act repugnant to it.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Constitution
Legislative
Repugnant
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This government is acknowledged by all, to be one of enumerated powers.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
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No one imagines that a law professing to tax will be permitted to destroy.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Imagine
Law
Taxes
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To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Communication
Mean
Powerful
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To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Communication
Influence
Powerful
Talk
Listen
Means
Well
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It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Court
Judicial Review
Law
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The most lively fancy aided by the strongest description cannot equal the reality of the opera.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Description
Equal
Fancy
Lively
Opera
Reality
Strongest
Aided
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Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Democracies Have
Differences
Order
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What is it that makes us trust our judges? Their independence in office and manner of appointment.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Trust
Independence
Judging
Office
Appointment
Judges
Manner
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A corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Business
Corporations
Law
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What are the maxims of Democracy? A strict observance of justice and public faith, and a steady adherence to virtue.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Adherence
Democracy
Justice
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The power to tax involves the power to destroy;...the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Liberty
May
Useless
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Seldom has a battle, in which greater numbers were not engaged, been so important in its consequences as that of Cowpens.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Battle
Important
Numbers
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The peculiar circumstances of the moment may render a measure more or less wise, but cannot render it more or less constitutional.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Wise
May
Peculiar
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The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Constitution Of The United States
Democracy
People
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A constitution is framed for ages to come, and is designed to approach immortality as nearly as human institutions can approach it.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Age
Constitution
Framed
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The law does not expect a man to be prepared to defend every act of his life which may be suddenly and without notice alleged against him.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Men
Doe
Law
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The acme of judicial distinction means the ability to look a lawyer straight in the eyes for two hours and not hear a damned word he says.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Eye
Mean
Two
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When a law is in its nature a contract, when absolute rights have vested under that contract, a repeal of the law cannot divest those rights.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Contracts
Law
Rights
Absolute
Contract
Divest
Repeal
Vested
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In a free government almost all other rights would become worthless if the government possessed power over the private fortune of every citizen.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Government
Citizens
Rights
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Have no power, by taxation or otherwise, to retard, impede, burden or in any manner control the operations of the constitutional laws enacted by Congress.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Burden
Law
Taxation
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An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Law
Limits
Taxation
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To obtain a just compromise, concession must not only mutual-it must be equal also....There can be no hope that either will yield more than it gets in return.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Compromise
Return
Yield
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The French Revolution will be found to have had great influence on the strength of parties, and on the subsequent political transactions of the United States.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Found
French Revolution
Influence
Party
Political
Revolution
States
Transactions
United States
Had
French
Parties
Subsequent
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No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States and compounding the American people into one common mass.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Dream
People
Thinking
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The events of my life are too unimportant, and have too little interest for any person not of my immediate family, to render them worth communicating or preserving.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Unimportant
Life Family My Life
Immediate
Preserving
Render
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The institution of Masonry ought to be abandoned as one capable of much evil, and incapable of producing any good which might not be affected by safe and open means.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Evil
Mean
Safe
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The federal government is acknowledged by all to be one of enumerated powers. The principle, that it can exercise only the powers granted to it . . . is now universally admitted.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Government
Exercise
Principles
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The government of the Union, though limited in its powers, is supreme within its sphere of action, and its laws, when made in pursuance of the constitution, form the supreme law of the land.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Government
Action
Form
Supreme
Within
Limited
Powers
Union
Sphere
Though
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It is the peculiar province of the legislature to prescribe general rules for the government of society; the application of those rules to individuals in society would seem to be the duty of other departments.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Government
Individual
Peculiar
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The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury. One of the first duties of government is to afford that protection.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Government
Essence
Individual
Injury
Liberty
Protection
Laws
Afford
Certainly
Civil
Civil Liberty
First
Consists
Duties
Right
Receives
Whenever
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It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is...If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each...This is of the very essence of judicial duty.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Essence
Law
Two
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My gift of John Marshall to the people of the United States was the proudest act of my life. There is no act of my life on which I reflect with more pleasure. I have given to my country a judge equal to a Hole, Holt, or a Mansfield.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Country
Judging
People
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The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Men
Law
United States
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The government of the Union, then, ... is, emphatically, and truly, a government of the people. In form and in substance it emanates from them. Its powers are granted by them, and are to be exercised directly on them, and for their benefit.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Government
People
Substance
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My father superintended the English part of my education, and to his care I am indebted for anything valuable which I may have acquired in my youth. He was my only intelligent companion, and was both a watchful parent and an affectionate friend.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Affectionate
Companion
Indebted
Intelligent
Parent
Valuable
Youth
Acquired
English
Watchful
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I have always believed that national character... depends more on the female part of society than is generally imagined. Precepts from the lips of a beloved mother... sink deep in the heart, and make an impression which is seldom entirely effaced.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Beloved
Character
Depends
Female
Heart
Impression
Lips
Mother
Believed
Entirely
Generally
Imagined
National
National Character
Precepts
Seldom
Sink
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Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Letters
Mean
Spirit
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Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Government
Law
Void
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When a law is in its nature a contract, when absolute rights have vested under that contract, a repeal of the law cannot divest those rights. The people can act only by their agents and, within the powers conferred upon them, their acts must be considered as the acts of the people.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Agents
Absolute
Acts
Considered
Conferred
Divest
Powers
Repeal
Vested
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The particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Law
Principles
Void
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If the agency of the mother in forming the character of her children is, in truth, so considerable, as I think it - if she does so much toward making her son what she would wish him to be - how essential is it that she should be fitted for the beneficial performance of these important duties.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Agency
Beneficial
Son
Wish
Considerable
Duties
Essential
Fitted
Forming
Performance
Toward
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I was born on the 24th of September 1755 in the county of Fauquier, at that time one of the frontier counties of Virginia. My father possessed scarcely any fortune and had received a very limited education - but was a man to whom nature had been bountiful, and who had assiduously improved her gifts.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Fortune
Possessed
September
Virginia
Counties
Frontier
Gifts
Improved
Limited
Received
Scarcely
Whom
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No principle of general law is more universally acknowledged, than the perfect equality of nations. Russia and Geneva have equal rights. It results from this equality, that no one can rightfully impose a rule on another....As no nation can prescribe a rule for others, none can make a law of nations.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Law
Rights
Russia
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Paris presents one incessant round of amusement & dissipation but very little, I believe - even for its inhabitants of that society - which interests the heart. Every day, you may see something new, magnificent & beautiful; every night, you may see a spectacle which astonishes & enchants the imagination.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Imagination
Society
Amusement
Dissipation
Incessant
Magnificent
Night
Something New
Every Day
Round
Inhabitants
Interests
Presents
Spectacle
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The constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. This is the very essence of judicial duty.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Constitution
Department
Duty
Essence
Judicial
Law
Mean
Ordinary
Paramount
Please
Unchangeable
Acts
Alter
Either
Say
Means
Legislative
Province
Shall
Superior
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During intervals of humanity, some disposition has been manifested to permit the return of those who have never offended, who have been banished by a terror which the government itself has reprobated, & to permit in case of arrestation, an investigation of the fact of emigration as well as of the identity of the person accus'd.
John Marshall / Former Chief Justice Of The United States
Disposition
Emigration
Humanity
Identity
Intervals
Investigation
Offended
Permit
Return
Terror
Banished
Case
Manifested
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John Marshall Quotes - Page 1

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