Constitutional convention Quote by Noam Chomsky

“[James] Madison pointed out in the discussion of the constitutional debates - the constitutional convention - that democracy would be a danger. He used England of course as the model and said suppose that in England everyone had the free right to vote; the poor, the propertyless - who are the great majority - would use their voting power to take away the rights of property owners to carry out what we would call land reform.”

Noam Chomsky

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 2.5 out of 5 (6 ratings)

More by Noam Chomsky

The costs of the Bush-Obama wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now estimated to run as high as $4.4 trillion - a major victory for Osama bin Laden, whose announced goal was to bankrupt America by drawing it into a trap. The 2011 military budget - almost matching that of the rest of the world combined - is higher in…

Noam Chomsky

If you believe in democracy, why shouldn't you know what the government is doing?

Noam Chomsky

Image

It’s a shameful moment for U.S. media when it insists on being subservient to the grotesque propaganda agencies of a violent, aggressive state.

Noam Chomsky

Image

There are questions as to whether it should even exist. Who should corporations be responsive to, the management of a corporation? Theoretically they are…

Noam Chomsky

Image

Governments regard their own citizens as their main enemy, and they have to be - protect themselves. That's why you have state secret laws.…

Noam Chomsky

Image

I don't join the New Atheists. So, for example, I wouldn't have the arrogance to lecture some mother who hopes to see her dying…

Noam Chomsky

Image

The first thing you ought to do is verify what I present. Just because I say it doesn't make it true. So check it…

Noam Chomsky

Image

I wrote an article about the marine landing [in Haiti] right away, but barely mentioned the oil, because my article would come out two…

Noam Chomsky

Image

American society is now remarkably atomized. Political organizations have collapsed. In fact, it seems like even bowling leagues are collapsing. The left has a…

Noam Chomsky

Image

Discovery is the ability to be puzzled by simple things. Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky

Image

There's an interesting book about that called The Third Reich and the Ivory Tower, written by Stephen H. Norwood. It has a long discussion about Harvard, and indeed the school's president, James Conant, did block Jewish faculty. He was the one who prevented European Jews from being admitted to the chemistry department - his field - and also had pretty…

Noam Chomsky

This is class war on an international scale, and power is in the hands of those who control the international economic system.

Noam Chomsky

Image

Explore all 2,129 Noam Chomsky quotes

More Constitutional convention quotes

“In framing that great document which Gladstone declared ‘the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man,’ our early leaders our early leaders called upon a kind Providence. Later the product of the constitutional convention was referred to as our God-inspired Constitution. They had incorporated within its sacred paragraphs eternal principles…

Ezra Taft Benson

No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was every more clouded than the present! Wisdom, and good examples are…

George Washington

Image

“Treason the only crime defined in the Constitution. Tyranny as under the Stuart and Tudor kings characterized by the elimination of political dissent under the laws of treason. Treason statutes which were many and unending, the instrument by which the monarch eliminated his opposition and also added to his wealth. The property of the executed traitor forfeited by his heirs…

E.L. Doctorow

Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended

Benjamin Franklin

Image

I am exceedingly distressed at the proceedings of the Convention-being ... almost sure, they will ... lay the foundation of a Civil War.

Elbridge Gerry

Image

I firmly believe this ... that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter…

Benjamin Franklin

I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this…

Benjamin Franklin

Image

“By their actions, the Founding Fathers made clear that their primary concern was religious freedom, not the advancement of a state religion. Individuals, not the government, would define religious faith and practice in the United States. Thus the Founders ensured that in no official sense would America be a Christian Republic. Ten years after the Constitutional Convention ended its work,…

Franklin T. Lambert

“ Alexander Hamilton Junior High School -- SEMESTER REPORT -- STUDENT: Joseph Margolis TEACHER: Janet Hicks ENGLISH: A, ARITHMETIC: A, SOCIAL STUDIES: A, SCIENCE: A, NEATNESS: A, PUNCTUALITY: A, PARTICIPATION: A, OBEDIENCE: D Teacher's Comments: Joseph remains a challenging student. While I appreciate his creativity, I am sure you will agree that a classroom is an inappropriate forum for a…

Steve Kluger

I consider the difference between a system founded on the legislatures only, and one founded on the people, to be the true difference between…

James Madison

Image

“The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were adamant that impeachment not reach to errors of judgment, or what Edmund Randolph described as “a willful mistake of the heart, or an involuntary fault of the head.” On the other hand, betrayals of the constitutional order, dishonesty in the executive’s dealing with Congress, and concealment of dealings with foreign powers that could…

Andrew McCarthy