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As men, whose intentions require no concealment, generally employ the words which most directly and aptly express the ideas they intend to convey, the enlightened patriots who framed our constitution, and the people who adopted it, must be understood to have employed words in their natural sense, and to have intended what they have said.

— John Marshall Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

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More quotes by John Marshall

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

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

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.

We must never forget that it is a constitution we are expounding.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

The subject is the execution of those great powers on which the welfare of a Nation essentially depends.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Marshall (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.