QuoteProject
The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.
Samuel Adams
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the importance of press freedom and the right to bear arms as fundamental liberties that should not be infringed upon.

Samuel Adams' quote reflects the belief that the Constitution should protect essential civil liberties, specifically the freedom of the press and the right of individuals to possess arms for their own defense. By asserting that Congress should not infringe upon these rights, it highlights the vital role of these freedoms in maintaining a just society and the necessity for peaceable citizens to safeguard their personal liberties.

Themes

ConstitutionPress FreedomCivil LibertiesArms RightsPolitical Rights

In practice

Example use cases

Citing this quote during a debate about press censorship.

More from Samuel Adams

We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection
Samuel AdamsRead
Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.
Samuel AdamsRead
If taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves? We claim British rights not by charter only! We are born to them.
Samuel AdamsRead
Let no man thirst for good beer.
Samuel AdamsRead
He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man.
Samuel AdamsRead
We boast of our freedom, and we have your example for it. We talk the language we have always heard you speak.
Samuel AdamsRead

Similar quotes

If we are endowed by our Creator with rights, then why shouldn't those be attainable by gays and lesbians?
Bill NelsonRead
The leech's kiss, the squid's embrace, The prurient ape's defiling touch: And do you like the human race? No, not much.
Aldous HuxleyRead
America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.
Georges ClemenceauRead
One thing leads to another? Not always. Sometimes one thing leads to the same thing. Ask an addict.
George CarlinRead
Our knowledge springs from two fundamental sources of the mind; the first is the capacity of receiving representations (receptivity for impressions), the second is the power of knowing an object through these representations (spontaneity [in the production] of concepts).
Immanuel KantRead
People shouldn't call for demons unless they really mean what they say.
C. S. LewisRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Samuel Adams | QuoteProject