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The government of the Union, then, … is, emphatically, and truly, a government of the people. In form and in substance it emanates from them. Its powers are granted by them, and are to be exercised directly on them, and for their benefit.

— John Marshall McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

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Government

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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Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene (1589)

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

James Madison

Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.

Leon Trotsky The Revolution Betrayed (1936)

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

Attribution

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.