Congress Quotes

1506 Congress quotes by 894 unique authors

The appropriation of public money always is perfectly lovely until some one is asked to pay the bill. If we are to have a billion… — Calvin Coolidge
Foreign policy always has more force and punch when the nation speaks with one voice. To remain secure, prosperous, and free, the United States must… — Lee H. Hamilton
The powers of congress must be defined, but their means must be adequate to the purposes of their constitution. It is possible there may be… — Oliver Ellsworth
We are not to consider ourselves, while here, as at church or school, to listen to the harangues of speculative piety; we are here to… — Fisher Ames
The members of the legislative department . . . are numerous. They are distributed and dwell among the people at large. Their connections of blood,… — James Madison
It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good… — Thomas Jefferson
The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex. — James Madison
One hundred and seventy-three despots would surely be as oppressive as one. — James Madison
[Regarding legislative assemblies,] the number ought at most to be kept within a certain limit, in order to avoid the confusion and intemperance of a… — James Madison
On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a surrender of that… — Thomas Jefferson
A local spirit will infallibly prevail much more in the members of Congress than a national spirit will prevail in the legislatures of the particular… — James Madison
For the same reason that the members of the State legislatures will be unlikely to attach themselves sufficiently to national objects, the members of the… — James Madison
But they have two other Rights; those of sitting when they please, and as long as they please, in which methinks they have the advantage… — Benjamin Franklin
[I]t is more convenient to prevent the passage of a law, than to declare it void after it has passed. — James Madison
The people can never willfully betray their own interests: But they may possibly be betrayed by the representatives of the people; and the danger will… — James Madison
I have appealed to our own experience for the truth of what I advance on this subject [that the legislative power is the predominant power].… — James Madison
The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation and involves the spirit of party and faction in the… — James Madison
The representatives of the people, in a popular assembly, seem sometimes to fancy that they are the people themselves, and betray strong symptoms of impatience… — Alexander Hamilton
If it be said that the legislative body are themselves the constitutional judges of their own powers, and that the construction they put upon them… — Alexander Hamilton
Parliaments are in all cases to declare what is good for the whole; but it is not the declaration of parliament that makes it so. — James Otis

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