John Marshall Quotes

Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.

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.

The power to tax is the power to destroy.

It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.

To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well

A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law.

A corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law.

What are the maxims of Democracy? A strict observance of justice and public faith, and a steady adherence to virtue.

A constitution is framed for ages to come, and is designed to approach immortality as nearly as human institutions can approach it.

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.

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.

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.

In a free government almost all other rights would become worthless if the government possessed power over the private fortune of every citizen.

The power to tax involves the power to destroy;...the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create.

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.

The Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.

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 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.

One man's vulgarity is another man's lyric.

The peculiar circumstances of the moment may render a measure more or less wise, but cannot render it more or less constitutional.

Privacy in one's associations... may in many circumstances be indispensable to freedom of association, particularly where a group espouses dissident beliefs.

What is it that makes us trust our judges? Their independence in office and manner of appointment.

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.

This government is acknowledged by all, to be one of enumerated powers.

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.

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.

I fear we may live to see another revolution.

No one imagines that a law professing to tax will be permitted to destroy.

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.

The most lively fancy aided by the strongest description cannot equal the reality of the opera.

Seldom has a battle, in which greater numbers were not engaged, been so important in its consequences as that of Cowpens.

To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well.

The power to tax involves the power to destroy.

The corporation is an artificial being invisible intangible and existing only in contemplation of law.

[O]ne man's vulgarity is another's lyric.

...if George Washington founded the nation, John Marshall defined it.

. . . a constitution, intended toendure for ages to come, andconsequently, to be adapted to thevarious crises of human affairs.