Our rights are not absolute. Our rights can be curtailed in the interest of public safety.

Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

Government’s first duty and highest obligation is public safety.

My life is not unlike Truman’s. I can’t go anywhere.

Liberty is the right to do what I like; license, the right to do what you like.

The government argues that First Amendment rights are outweighed by the need to prosecute those who transmit classified information and documents.

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.

Oh, I can’t play soccer, and I’m not a great swimmer. I won’t drown, but you won’t see me doing laps in a pool.

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

Unless your government is respectable, foreigners will invade your rights; and to maintain tranquillity, it must be respectable – even to observe neutrality, you must have a strong government.

I don’t think we need more gun control laws.

There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‚be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough‘ are not true. They are fairy tales.

We don’t seem to be able to check crime, so why not legalize it and then tax it out of business?

Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

In the nineties, everybody wants to talk about their rights and privileges. Twenty-five years ago, people talked about their obligations and responsibilities.

In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one’s rights and double one’s duties.

Freedom is a right ultimately defended by the sacrifice of America’s servicemen and women.

The Bill of Rights is not an a la carte menu.

We think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this.

The only way you can beat the lawyers is to die with nothing.

Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.

A good lawyer is going to try to protect her client.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

Some of my colleagues argue that by further curtailing our Second Amendment rights, they can enhance public safety. Fine, the burden of proof is on them.

We all have limitations. I don’t have the right genes to be an Olympic weightlifter. I don’t have the right genetics to be an Olympic sprinter. Or gymnast. Sure, if I trained my whole life, perhaps I could have become fairly decent in those sports.

Liberty consists in the power of doing that which is permitted by the law.

We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.

There is a group of people that I think in good faith honestly believe that further curtailing our Second Amendment rights will enhance public safety. But there’s another group that just hates the Second Amendment.

To understand the power of the priesthood, we must know its limitations.

In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.

I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.

Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

What we all want is public safety. We don’t want rhetoric that’s framed through ideology.

No book includes the entire world. It’s limited. And so it doesn’t seem like an aesthetic compromise to have to do that. There’s so much other material to write about.

A precedent embalms a principle.

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what’s in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.

Prejudice is a chain, it can hold you. If you prejudice, you can’t move, you keep prejudice for years. Never get nowhere with that.

Old age may have its limitations and challenges, but in spite of them, our latter years can be some of the most rewarding and fulfilling of our lives.

When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.

I’m prepared to say that law enforcement should be allowed to seize the guns of those who are suspected to be involved in domestic terrorism.

I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun.

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.

Should there be cameras everywhere in outdoor streets? My personal view is having cameras in inner cities is a very good thing. In the case of London, petty crime has gone down. They catch terrorists because of it. And if something really bad happens, most of the time you can figure out who did it.

A right delayed is a right denied.

Alimony – the ransom that the happy pay to the devil.

I think governments can’t do much.

We have soon to have everywhere smoke annihilators, dust absorbers, ozonizers, sterilizers of water, air, food and clothing, and accident preventers on streets, elevated roads and in subways. It will become next to impossible to contract disease germs or get hurt in the city, and country folk will got to town to rest and get well.

Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.

Occupying armies have responsibilities, not rights. Their primary responsibility is to withdraw as quickly and expeditiously as possible, in a manner determined by the occupied population.

You cannot make a giant space company in your dorm room. Not today. And the reason is that the heavy lifting infrastructure isn’t in place.

In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society.

Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.