21+ Sam Ervin Quotes On Education, Government And Supreme Court

Sam Ervin was an American politician who served as a Democratic Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. He was a key figure in the Watergate scandal and chaired the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. He was known for his folksy manner and his opposition to civil rights legislation and the Vietnam War. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Sam Ervin on education, government, leadership.

Top 10 Sam Ervin Quotes

1. The President seems to extend executive privilege way out past the atmosphere. What he says is executive privilege is nothing but executive poppycock.
2. Recalling an old magistrate's words to a young attorney, The rain it raineth on the just And also on the unjust fella; But chiefly on the just, because The unjust steals the just's umbrella.
3. Divine right went out with the American Revolution and doesn't belong to the White House aides. What meat do they eat that makes them grow so great?
4. When religion controls government, political liberty dies; and when government controls religion, religious liberty perishes.
5. Political freedom cannot exist in any land where religion controls the state, and religious freedom cannot exist in any land where the state controls religion.
6. The Supreme Court has made God unconstitutional.
7. Humor makes our heavy burdens light and smoothes the rough spots in our pathways.
8. Government is contemptuous of true religion when it confiscates the taxes of Caesar to finance the things of God.
9. Polygraph tests are 20th-century witchcraft.
10. A school prayer amendment would confer upon public school boards a power the First Amendment now denies to Congress and the states, that is, the power to establish religion.

Sam Ervin Famous Quotes And Sayings

If religious freedom is to endure in America, the responsibility for teaching religion to public school children must be left to the homes and churches of our land, where this responsibility rightfully belongs. It must not be assumed by the government through the agency of the public school system. — Sam Ervin

Religious faith is not a storm cellar to which men and women can flee for refuge from the storms of life. It is instead, an inner spiritual strength which enables them to face those storms with hope and serenity. — Sam Ervin

I used to think that the Civil War was our country's greatest tragedy, but I do remember that there were some redeeming features in the Civil War in that there was some spirit of sacrifice and heroism displayed on both sides. I see no redeeming features in Watergate. — Sam Ervin

A leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people or improve the system they live under. — Sam Ervin

I believe in a wall between church and state so high that no one can climb over it. — Sam Ervin

There is nothing in the Constitution that authorizes or makes it the official duty of a president to have anything to do with criminal activities. — Sam Ervin

If the many allegations made to this date are true, then the burglars who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate were, in effect, breaking into the home of every citizen. — Sam Ervin

I'll have you understand I am running this court, and the law hasn't got a damn thing to do with it! — Sam Ervin

I've always been worried about people who are willing to work for nothing. Sometimes that's all you get from them, nothing. — Sam Ervin

A judicial activist is a judge who interprets the Constitution to mean what it would have said if he, instead of the Founding Fathers, had written it. — Sam Ervin

What James Madison and the other men of his generation had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment was that there should be no official relationship of any character between government and any church or many churches, and no levying of taxes for the support of any church, or many churches, or all churches, or any institution conducted by any of them. — Sam Ervin

Life Lessons by Sam Ervin

1. Sam Ervin taught the importance of upholding the Constitution and respecting the rule of law. He was a champion of civil rights and a vocal opponent of the Watergate scandal.
2. He demonstrated the power of standing up for what you believe in, even when it is unpopular, and showed the importance of speaking truth to power.
3. He also taught the value of compromise and the importance of protecting the rights of the minority, even when it is politically inconvenient.