Joseph Joubert Quotes

You cannot speak on behalf of a nation when you have no mandate to do so.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

Governments are not always right.

Common tyrants, and public oppressors, are not intitled to obedience from their subjects, by virtue of any thing here laid down by the inspired apostle.

The first principle of a civilized state is that the power is legitimate only when it is under contract.

We have to give value to authority. We have to give value to office, being in office, holding office.

The bringing-about of order is the first and fundamental task of government. We accept limits on our rights for the sake of a larger social compact all the time.

Power without a nation's confidence is nothing.

A political society cannot endure without a supreme will somewhere.

Civil war was taught them [Americans] that "the sacred right of insurrection" is as much out of place in a democratic state as in an aristocratic or a monarchical state; and that the government should always be clothed with ample authority to arrest and punish whoever plots its destruction.

Part of understanding power is understanding the limits of power.

The Church ... has always reproved the doctrines and condemned the men that rebel against the legitimate [secular] authority.

To despise legitimate authority, no matter in whom it is invested, is unlawful; it is rebellion against God's will.

Resolved-1st, That the People are the source of all legitimate power; and, That We are the People.

The practice of a ruling power in the State is but a feeble proof of its legality.

Let this stand then as a settled maxim of the law of nature, never to be shaken by any artifices of flatterers, that the senate, or the people, are superior to kings, be they good or bad: which is but what you yourself do in effect confess when you tell us that the authority of kings was derived from the people. For that power which they transferred to princes doth yet naturally, or, as I may say, virtually, reside in themselves notwithstanding.

You don’t need to admire power, but you must always, however grudgingly, respect and understand it.

There never was a government without force.... A governement leaving it to a man to do his duty, or not, as he pleases, would be a new species of government, or rather no government at all.

Well, I think, by definition, all power has limits.

There are limits to power, as those who put their hopes in a constitution always discover.

Government is necessary, but the only rights we can delegate to government are the ones we possess. For example, we all have a natural right to defend ourselves against predators. Since we possess that right, we can delegate authority to government to defend us. By contrast, we don't have a natural right to take the property of one person to give to another; therefore, we cannot legitimately delegate such authority to government.

I don't know how to run your life. I don't know how to run your life. I don't have the authority to run your life. And the Constitution doesn't permit me to run your life.

Power without authority is tyranny.

A government that understands the limits of power as well as its potential.

Lawful and settled authority is very seldom resisted when it is well employed.