It is my belief that there are "absolutes" in our Bill of Rights, and that they were put there on purpose by men who knew what the words meant and meant their prohibitions to be "absolutes."

I believe the Court has no power to add to or subtract from the procedures set forth by the founders....I shall not at any time surrender my belief that the document itself should be our guide, not our own concept of what is fair, decent, and right.

The public welfare demands that constitutional cases must be decided according to the terms of the Constitution itself, and not according to judges' view of fairness, reasonableness, or justice.

Emergency does not create power.  Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved.  The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency.  Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the powerof the States were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency.

If the provisions of the Constitution be not upheld when they pinch as well as when they comfort, they may as well be abandoned.

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution.  I would be willing to depend on that alone for their reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government.

Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty?  Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend ot the security of your liberty?  Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings - give us that precious jewel, and you may take every thing else!...Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.  Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.

America was conquered, and her settlements made, and firmly established, at the expence of individuals, and not of the British public.  Their own blood was spilt in acquiring lands for their settlement, their own fortunes expended in making that settlement effectual; for themselves they fought, for themselves they conquered, and for themselves alone they have right to hold.

Posterity - you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.