24 John Marshall Quotes

John Marshall quotes

1. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is...If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each...This is of the very essence of judicial duty.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

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

6. This provision is made in a constitution, intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs.

7. 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.

8. The power to tax involves the power to destroy.

1. I have always believed that national character... depends more on the female part of society than is generally imagined. Precepts from the lips of a beloved mother... sink deep in the heart, and make an impression which is seldom entirely effaced.

2. 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.

3. The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.

4. The events of my life are too unimportant, and have too little interest for any person not of my immediate family, to render them worth communicating or preserving.

5. 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.

6. If the agency of the mother in forming the character of her children is, in truth, so considerable, as I think it - if she does so much toward making her son what she would wish him to be - how essential is it that she should be fitted for the beneficial performance of these important duties.

7. The particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.

8. 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.

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

10. 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.

11. 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.

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

13. During intervals of humanity, some disposition has been manifested to permit the return of those who have never offended, who have been banished by a terror which the government itself has reprobated, & to permit in case of arrestation, an investigation of the fact of emigration as well as of the identity of the person accus'd.

14. The power to tax is the power to destroy.

15. 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.

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