List of John Marshall Quotes

Let The End Be Legitimate, Let It Be Within The Scope Of The Constitution, And All Means Which Are Appropriate, Which Are Plainly Adapted To That End, Which Are Not Prohibited, But Consist With The Letter And Spirit Of The Constitution, Are Constitutional.

Seldom Has A Battle, In Which Greater Numbers Were Not Engaged, Been So Important In Its Consequences As That Of Cowpens.

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.

That The People Have An Original Right To Establish, For Their Future Government, Such Principles As, In Their Opinion, Shall Most Conduce To Their Own Happiness, Is The Basis, On Which The Whole American Fabric Has Been Erected.... The Principles, Therefore, So Established, Are Deemed Fundamental. And As The Authority, From Which They Proceed, Is Supreme ... They Are Designed To Be Permanent.... The Powers Of The Legislature Are Defined, And Limited; And That Those Limits May Not Be Mistaken, Or Forgotten, The Constitution Is Written.

No Principle Of General Law Is More Universally Acknowledged, Than The Perfect Equality Of Nations. Russia And Geneva Have Equal Rights. It Results From This Equality, That No One Can Rightfully Impose A Rule On Another....as No Nation Can Prescribe A Rule For Others, None Can Make A Law Of Nations.

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.

It Is The Peculiar Province Of The Legislature To Prescribe General Rules For The Government Of Society; The Application Of Those Rules To Individuals In Society Would Seem To Be The Duty Of Other Departments.

My Gift Of John Marshall To The People Of The United States Was The Proudest Act Of My Life. There Is No Act Of My Life On Which I Reflect With More Pleasure. I Have Given To My Country A Judge Equal To A Hole, Holt, Or A Mansfield.

Whether A Law Be Void For Its Repugnancy To The Constitution, Is, At All Times, A Question Of Much Delicacy, Which Out Seldom, If Ever, To Be Decided In The Affirmative, In Doubtful Case. ... But It Is Not On Slight Implication And Vague Conjecture That The Legislature Is To Be Pronounced To Have Transcended Its Powers, And Its Acts To Be Considered As Void. The Opposition Between The Constitution And The Law Should Be Such That The Judge Feels A Clear And Strong Conviction Of Their Incompatibility With Each Other.

Certainly All Those Who Have Framed Written Constitutions Contemplate Them As Forming The Fundamental And Paramount Law Of The Nation, And Consequently The Theory Of Every Such Government Must Be, That An Act Of The Legislature, Repugnant To The Constitution, Is Void.

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.

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.