Thomas Paine has many words worth quoting. This quote is one of the best single block quotes. It is his first description of a constitution. I have divided the quote into pieces because each point is worth noting.
"A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact. It has not an ideal, but a real existence; and wherever it cannot be produced, there is none."
"A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of the constitution."
"The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but is the act of the people constituting a government."
"The constitution is the body of elements, to which you can refer, and quote article by article; and contains the principles on which the government shall be established, the form in which it shall be organized, the powers it shall have, the mode of elections, the duration of parliaments (or by whatever name such bodies may be called); the powers which the executive part of the government shall have; and, in detail, everything that relates to the complete organization of a civil government, and the principle on which it shall act, and by which it shall be bound."
"A constitution, therefore, is to a government what the laws made afterwards by that government are to a court. The court does not make laws, neither can it alter them; it only acts in conformity to the laws made; and the government is in like manner governed by the constitution."
Thomas Paine, "Rights of Man" 1792
"A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact. It has not an ideal, but a real existence; and wherever it cannot be produced, there is none."
"A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of the constitution."
"The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but is the act of the people constituting a government."
"The constitution is the body of elements, to which you can refer, and quote article by article; and contains the principles on which the government shall be established, the form in which it shall be organized, the powers it shall have, the mode of elections, the duration of parliaments (or by whatever name such bodies may be called); the powers which the executive part of the government shall have; and, in detail, everything that relates to the complete organization of a civil government, and the principle on which it shall act, and by which it shall be bound."
"A constitution, therefore, is to a government what the laws made afterwards by that government are to a court. The court does not make laws, neither can it alter them; it only acts in conformity to the laws made; and the government is in like manner governed by the constitution."
Thomas Paine, "Rights of Man" 1792
