Today's Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish. — Thurgood Marshall
The First Amendment, I think, is the jewel of our Constitution. — Samuel Alito
We need a constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to control the so-called free speech rights of corporations. — Hank Johnson
By amending our mistakes, we get wisdom. By defending our faults, we betray an unsound mind. — Huineng
The fifth amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees that no private property shall be taken for a public use without the payment of just compensation. — Elton Gallegly
The government has the right to change laws and rules and regulations. — Jamie Dimon
The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands. — Hugo Black
The "takings" clause of the Fifth Amendment is for conservatives what the equal protection clause of the 14th is for liberals. — Michael Kinsley
Constitution is for the people, people are not for the constitution. Change it for the betterment of the common man. — Sayings
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. — James Madison
The notion that the First Amendment has no limitations whatsoever is balderdash. — Trey Gowdy
The process of democracy is one of change. Our laws are not frozen into immutable form, they are constantly in the process of revision in response to the needs of a changing society. — Thurgood Marshall
You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one. — Rush Limbaugh
The Second Amendment to our Constitution is clear. The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed upon. Period. — Donald Trump
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. — Benjamin Franklin
Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. — George Washington
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. — Thomas Jefferson
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. — William S. Burroughs
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed. — Alexander Hamilton
A sword by itself does not slay; it is merely the weapon used by the slayer. — Seneca
Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz - My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends. — Janis Joplin
To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms. — Richard Henry Lee
It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. — Louis D. Brandeis
True repentance means making amends with the person when at all possible. — Lawana Blackwell
Amendment Image Quotes
1st Amendment Quotes
In Cyberspace, the 1st Amendment is a local ordinance. — John Perry Barlow
Criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press. — Hugo Black
One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That's the new gloss on the 1st Amendment. — William O. Douglas
The 1st Amendment protects the right to speak, not the right to spend. — Byron White
First Amendment Quotes
I believe America went wrong in terms of respecting the First Amendment, the state of free speech on American college campuses and on the media and in academia. — Milo Yiannopoulos
The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed. — James Madison
The First Amendment has the same role in my life as a citizen and a writer as the sun has in our ecosystem. — Michael Chabon
If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable. — William J. Brennan
I'm tired of being considered some kind of criminal or dangerous throwback for no other reason than that I value, exercise, and defend my rights under the first ten Amendments to the United States Constitution. — L. Neil Smith
Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our liberty depends upon the chaos and cacophony of the unfettered speech the First Amendment protects. — Stewart Dalzell
Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. — William O. Douglas
No one understands that the First Amendment is only important if you are going to offend somebody. If you're not going to offend somebody, you don't need protection of the First Amendment. — Larry Flynt
For an American to be patriotic is to be loyal to the principles of our Constitution, and the First Amendment. The truth is that the policies of the government is sometimes in conflict with that. In our country, patriotism should not be defined as obedience to an authority. — Daniel Ellsberg
The First Amendment is not an altar on which we must sacrifice our children, families, and community standards. Obscene material that is not protected by the First Amendment can and must be prohibited. — Orrin Hatch
Second Amendment Quotes
Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an Americans. — Tench Coxe
Liberty and order will never be perfectly safe until a trespass on the Constitution provisions for either, shall be felt with the same keenness that resents and invasion of the dearest rights. — James Madison
A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies. — George Washington
Loving the Second Amendment while opposing the NRA is every bit as natural as loving Jesus while opposing Westboro Baptist Church. — John Fugelsang
Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks. — Thomas Jefferson
It is often easier for our children to obtain a gun than it is to find a good school. — Joycelyn Elders
The National Guard fulfills the militia mentioned in the Second amendment. Citizens no longer need to protect the states or themselves. — Dianne Feinstein
A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite. — George Washington
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. - Second Amendment to the Constitution An armed society is a polite society. — Robert A. Heinlein
Gun control means being able to hit your target. If I have a 'hot button' issue, this is definitely it. Don't even think about taking my guns. My rights are not negotiable, and I am totally unwilling to compromise when it comes to the Second Amendment. — Michael Badnarik
Equal Rights Amendment Quotes
I always feel the movement is a sort of mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end. — Alice Paul
Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. — Alice Paul
Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction. — Alice Paul
History has shown us that, on extraordinarily rare occasions, it becomes necessary for the federal government to intervene on behalf of individuals whose 14th Amendment rights to legal due process and equal protection may be violated by a state. — Michael K. Simpson
My greatest disappointment in all the projects I worked on during the White House years was the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment to be ratified. ... Why all the controversy and why such difficulty in giving women the protection of the Constitution that should have been theirs long ago? — Rosalynn Carter
I believe the equal rights amendment is a necessity of life for all citizens. The cabinet sometimes felt that I shouldn't be so outspoken. — Betty Ford
The Equal Rights Amendment would "turn holy wedlock into holy deadlock." — William Rehnquist
When I started law school I was shocked to learn that our legal system traditionally had the man as the head and master of the family. As late as the '70s and '80s when we were fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment, states like Louisiana still had a head and master law. — Patricia Ireland
We are going to fight to pass the long over-due Equal Rights Amendment. — Bernie Sanders
I'll do anything to pass the ERA [Equal Rights Amendment], even if it means wearing babydoll nightgowns and padded bras, if that will make people less afraid. — Joan Hackett
First Amendment Rights Quotes
An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment. — Hugo Black
Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. — Robert H. Jackson
Without either the first or second amendment, we would have no liberty; the first allows us to find out what's happening, the second allows us to do something about it! The second will be taken away first, followed by the first and then the rest of our freedoms. — Unknown Author
The Washington Times wrote a story questioning the authenticity of some of the suggestions made about me in Silent Coup. But as a believer in the First Amendment, I believe they have more than a right to air their views. — Bob Woodward
Just as the First and Fourth Amendment secure individual rights of speech and security respectively, the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. This view of the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers. — John Ashcroft
First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought. — Anthony Kennedy
A lot of people in the adult population have a very limited idea as to why they are Americans, why we have a First Amendment or a Bill of Rights. — Nat Hentoff
It just seems to be a human trait to want to protect the speech of people with whom we agree. For the First Amendment, that is not good enough. So it is really important that we protect First Amendment rights of people no matter what side of the line they are on. — Floyd Abrams
[Asserting] important First Amendment rights ... why should [executions] be the one area that is conducted behind closed doors?... Why shouldn't executions be public? — Phil Donahue
We all have the right of freedom of speech under the First Amendment. We all don't have to agree with one another on our opinions. Everyone in my circle, that I run around with, we all feel the same about God, country, integrity and character. — Luke Scott
Fourth Amendment Quotes
The makers of our Constitution . . . conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. — Louis D. Brandeis
No one in their right mind can say to me with a straight face that the Patriot Act has not aggregated the Fourth Amendment. — Peter Camejo
Asking questions is an essential part of police investigation. In the ordinary sense a police officer is free to ask a person for identification without implicating the Fourth Amendment. — Anthony Kennedy
It is better, so the Fourth Amendment teaches us, that the guilty sometimes go free than the citizens be subject to easy arrest. — William O. Douglas
The Fourth Amendment is clear; we should be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects, and all warrants must have probable cause. Today the government operates largely in secret, while seeking to know everything about our private lives - without probable cause and without a warrant. — Ron Paul
We are going to have a long period where people are accustomed or conditioned to what's going on now with the raping of the Fourth Amendment. — Nat Hentoff
I was lecturing at the Columbia Journalism School of Education. I asked them about what was happening to the Fourth Amendment. I said, "By the way, do you know what is in the Fourth Amendment?" One student responded, "Is that the right to bear arms?" It's hard to believe these are bright students. — Nat Hentoff
Our bill of rights has been shredded. The fourth amendment specifically prohibits the kind of activities the NSA is involved in domestically. The fifth amendment prohibits any president or anyone else from killing anyone without due process. — Ray McGovern
The Fourth Amendment is on life support and the chief agent of that is the National Security Agency. — Nat Hentoff
The Fourth Amendment was what we fought the Revolution over! — Rand Paul
Fifth Amendment Quotes
When you have your staff taking the Fifth Amendment, taking the Fifth so they're not prosecuted, when you have the man that set up the illegal server taking the Fifth, I think it's disgraceful. And believe me, this country thinks it's - really thinks it's disgraceful, also. — Donald Trump
If you insist on asking me why I feel the way I do, I plan to take the Fifth Amendment. — Mason Cooley
He has called for a repeal of the Fifth Amendment as it affects the right of private property. — Dixie Lee Ray
We misread the Fifth Amendment [of Constitution] and have been misreading it for the past three decades. — Joe Biden
I know that some believe that voluntary prayer in schools should be restricted to a moment of silence. We already have the right to remain silent - we can take our Fifth Amendment. — Ronald Reagan
I'm a lawyer, I practiced for many years, and so I believe in the Fifth Amendment. — Elijah Cummings
For the last couple of hundred years, there have been struggles about this. Even the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the constitution talk about personal rights. — Noam Chomsky
Officers are taught to use all the tricks and lies that courts permit within the scope of the Fifth Amendment's shield against self-incrimination. — David K. Shipler
Constitutional Amendments Quotes
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it. — Abraham Lincoln
To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today. — Thurgood Marshall
Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth. — Will Rogers
Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth. — Rita Mae Brown
The pro-gun advocates point to the 2nd amendment of America's Constitution, citing Americans' right to bear arms as a protection against tyrants. Pro-Bitcoin advocates want protection against tyrants, too. The difference is how these two groups define tyranny. — Max Keiser
The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but ... to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government. — Joseph Story
Whatever one's religion in his private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts - including the First Amendment and the strict separation of church and state. — John F. Kennedy
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. — Thomas Jefferson
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. — Joseph Story
Outlawing religion form the political arena is not what the Founding Fathers intended when they drafted the First Amendment. We do a grave disservice to our country by removing the influence of religion. If you separate God from the public arena, inevitably you separate good from our government. — Bill Bright
Amendment 1 Quotes
For an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. — Thomas Jefferson
In D.C., I've passed amendments to allocate $6.3 million to keep our waterways open for business, $1 million as a down payment on our wetland restoration - our natural storm protection - and $5 million to ensure that drilling permits are reviewed thoroughly and efficiently. — Cedric Richmond
I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people. — George Mason
The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic. — Joseph Story
As a consequence, the Court ruled that the limits on campaign spending violated the First Amendment, but it accepted the $1,000 limit on individual contributions on the ground that the need to avoid the appearance of corruption justified this limited constraint on speech. — James L. Buckley
Who in their right mind ever thought that the birth of a child to an illegal immigrant converted to citizenship? A lot of people believe it. It's not in the 14th Amendment. You know where it is? It's in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4. — Rush Limbaugh
There are two amendments only which I am anxious for: 1. A bill of rights, which it is so much the interest of all to have that I conceive it must be yielded...2. The restoring of the principle of necessary rotation, particularly to the Senate and Presidency, but most of all to the last. — Thomas Jefferson
Our 1 million members across the country will be watching closely to see if the video game industry hides behind a First Amendment veil in order to exploit children for the sake of corporate profit. — Connie Sellecca
To those who cite the first amendment as reason for excluding God from more and more of our institutions and everyday life, may I just say: The first amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people of this country from religious values; it was written to protect religious values from government tyranny. — Ronald Reagan
If you don't uphold your legal responsibility to enforce the First Amendment, to provide speakers with platforms and audiences with safe, the ability to listen to speakers of all different kinds, agnostic ideology, if you don't do that as a university, you are not performing your essential function. — Milo Yiannopoulos
The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles. — Jeff Cooper
While that amendment failed, human cloning continues to advance and the breakthrough in this unethical and morally questionable science is around the corner. — Mike Pence
Keep your heart in peace and let nothing trouble you, not even your faults. You must humble yourself and amend them peacefully, without being discouraged or cast down, for God's dwelling is in peace. — Margaret Mary Alacoque
Here ends the SILMARILLION. If it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the Marring be amended, Manwë and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it, and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos. — J. R. R. Tolkien
The First Amendment's language leaves no room for inference that abridgments of speech and press can be made just because they are slight. That Amendment provides, in simple words, that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." I read "no law . . . abridging" to mean no law abridging. — Hugo Black
I am a Colorado native, and, no, I did not vote for the anti-gay amendment or the same-sex marriage ban, and I am not a member of a militia. — Connie Willis
When they took the Fourth Amendment, I was silent because I don't deal drugs. When they took the Sixth Amendment, I kept quiet because I know I'm innocent. When they took the Second Amendment, I said nothing because I don't own a gun. Now they've come for the First Amendment, and I can't say anything at all. — Tim Freeman
Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean. — Aldous Huxley
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of amendment quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about amendment to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of amendment quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
