Famous quotes containing the words state, constitution and/or act:
“A state always calls itself fatherland when it is ready for murder.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.”
—Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)
“We must not suppose that, because a man is a rational animal, he will, therefore, always act rationally; or, because he has such or such a predominant passion, that he will act invariably and consequentially in pursuit of it. No, we are complicated machines; and though we have one main spring that gives motion to the whole, we have an infinity of little wheels, which, in their turns, retard, precipitate, and sometime stop that motion.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)