Democracy demands that judges confine themselves to a narrow sphere of influence - that is why the late Alexander Bickel called the judiciary the 'Least Dangerous Branch.' In a world governed by a proper conception of their role, judges don't play at being legislators - they leave that job to our elected representatives.

Edwin Meese

I consider abortion to be a deeply personal and intimate issue for women and I don't believe male legislators should even vote on the issue.

Alan K. Simpson

Women Men Vote

Representative government demands an ongoing conversation between legislators and constituents.

Alan Siegel

Men Government T

Shakespeare did not consider himself the legislator of mankind. He faithfully records man's problems and does not evidently propose to solve them.

Allan Bloom

Faith Them T

I've been not only articulating the dissatisfaction with Albany, I've been acting on it. I've been very aggressive in bringing public integrity cases and public corruption cases and bringing cases against sitting legislators.

Andrew Cuomo

Art Wit Very

Congress has shortchanged not only foreign aid but foreign policy. A mistaken notion that diplomats are unimportant and hence undeserving of support grips conservative legislators, especially.

Anthony Lewis

Change Up Unimportant

I've made no secret that although I loved being a legislator, I particularly loved being a chief executive.

Antonio Villaraigosa

Love Art Though

It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.

Aristotle

Men Business Use

Under a democratic form of government, the people elect legislators and ministers to fulfil their policies. The role of the ministers is to give directions. The role of the bureaucracy is to implement those directions. If those who have to do the implementation are on strike, no policies can actually be implemented.

Atishi

Men Government Who

Legislators have a formal set of responsibilities to work together, but there's no hierarchy.

Barney Frank

Work Together Tie

I'm a good legislator. I'm a bad some other things.

Barney Frank

Good Things Thing

As attorney general, I can either look into it or I can ignore it because they're a bunch of powerful legislators... and I'm afraid they're going to cut my budget.

Ben Chandler

Power Use Us

The acknowledged legislators of the world take the world as given. They dislike mysteries, for mysteries cannot be coded, or legislated, and wonder cannot be made into law. And so these legislators police the accepted frontiers of things.

Ben Okri

Knowledge World Wonder

Let me make it clear: The Disbursement Allocation Program is not pork barrel. Of the DAP releases in 2011 and 2012, only nine percent was disbursed for projects suggested by legislators. The DAP is not theft. Theft is illegal.

Benigno Aquino III

Men Legal Theft

The Constitution overrides a statute, but a statute, if consistent with the Constitution, overrides the law of judges. In this sense, judge-made law is secondary and subordinate to the law that is made by legislators.

Benjamin N. Cardozo

Wit Tent Ten

Ted Kennedy will go down in history as one of the giants of the U.S. Senate and one the most accomplished legislators in American history.

Bernie Sanders

History Will Tory

William Andrews Clark was caught in a bribery scandal during a campaign for the U.S. Senate - he was said to describe the Montana legislators this way: 'I never bought a man who wasn't for sale.'

Bill Dedman

William Will Who

In Illinois, where legislators are paid $45,000, plus as much as $10,000 for leadership work, about half are full-time politicians.

Bill Dedman

Work Time Leadership

In the Illinois State Capitol, in Springfield, farmer-legislators write the agriculture laws.

Bill Dedman

Write T State

Like most other states, Illinois has little regulation of the economic interests of legislators and relies on public disclosure to keep the lawmaking honest.

Bill Dedman

T Sure States

My job as governor is different from the legislators. They represent their districts. I have to represent all 6.6 million Tennesseans and come to the best decisions I can.

Bill Haslam

Ten T Strict

I do think there's a difference between what a religious leader says and does and what a public official or legislator does. But there's no question that a lot of our legal underpinnings find a good bit of their foundations in the Scriptures.

Bob Casey, Jr.

The legislator learns that when you talk a lot, you get in trouble. You have to listen a lot to make deals.

Bob Woodward

Legislators are interested in their pet projects, getting re-elected, and popularity contests.

Bud Grant

Gay marriage passed in New York because four Republican legislators crossed party lines. They did it in part because they had true bipartisan financial support.

Campbell Brown

Sometimes, government officials and legislators disagree on policies or issues. Yet, we invariably want the best for Hong Kong people.

Carrie Lam

Concerned about re-election, interest-group reactions, the media, or fundraising, many legislators have found it in their interest to refuse to cooperate with members of the opposing party - or to treat them as enemies in some kind of war, in which the whole point is to defeat and humiliate them. But the American people have been the real losers.

Cass Sunstein

The laws only can determine the punishment of crimes, and the authority of making penal laws can only reside with the legislator, who represents the whole society united by the social compact.

Cesare Beccaria

Whether you're an opera singer, a legislator or customer service operator, there is a way that we can find common ground with our audience - be they young or old, Democrats or Republicans, rich or poor, religious or secular.

Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick

I want to be influential as a legislator.

Charles Boustany

I want to dig in before I finish with a career here in Congress - be known as someone who was a really serious legislator, who had really good ideas and was willing to work across the aisle to get broad consensus to solve some of these problems the country is facing.

Charles Boustany

Merchandise from Wal-Mart has become as ubiquitous as the water supply. Yet, still, the company is rebuked and reviled by anyone claiming a social conscience and is lambasted by legislators as if its bad behavior places it somewhere between investment bankers and the Taliban.

Charles Platt

In Maine, we are fortunate to have a Clean Elections system that allows legislators to turn down corporate special interest money. At the national level, Congress should follow Maine's example by empowering the voices of small donors.

Chellie Pingree

I arrived in Hartford as a 25-year-old naive state legislator who believed in universal health care. I rose to become the 29-year-old Chairman of the legislature's Health Committee.

Chris Murphy

Being a new mother was a joyful and sometimes overwhelming experience - and as the first Missouri female state legislator to have a baby while in office, having heath care for myself and my son gave me some needed peace of mind.

Claire McCaskill

I started in the mailroom, literally, as an intern... in 1974. The legislator I was working for at the time said, 'I want you to get your law degree and come back here and get elected and be the first woman governor.' I kind of took that guy seriously - I thought that sounded like a pretty good idea.

Claire McCaskill

Our nation was founded with a bunch of founding legislators who joined together to move our country out of the blocks and get us started, and every generation since then has found a way to advance the ball down the field.

Cory Booker

I have done things politically, and I've been running a business at the same time, but I sort of joke that to some extent I do more than most legislators have done in their whole careers, and I've been doing it as a part-time job.

Craig Benson

Through educational programs, community engagement and legislative efforts, players, owners and the NFL are working with law enforcement, advocacy groups and legislators to transform our communities.

Cris Carter

Florida is one of the first states that sort of gives the legislature a very clear criteria for re-drawing electoral district maps. Basically, all the criteria do is tell the legislators that you can't draw a seat that helps yourself or a political party. That's really critical.

Dan Gelber

In the end, I think part of my problem was that I was a better legislator than I was a politician.

Dan Maffei

I'm a homing pigeon. When I'm in Tallahassee, I give everything I have to being, hopefully, the best legislator I can be. When I'm home, I'm home. I try to not do legislative stuff. That brings a balance to life.

Dan Webster

I'm a legislator, but it's hard to legislate when my party's out of power.

David Lammy

There are no tests similar to SATs to tell us how much undergraduates know. State legislators, who appropriate billions of dollars each year to higher education, are naturally interested in finding out what they are getting for their money.

Derek Bok

You have the biggest impact on controlling, on affecting local lives as mayor. It's so much more important than being a state legislator.

Dick Murphy

If legislators come to believe that police power is an ever-present constitutional trump card they can play whenever it suits them, overreaching is inexorable.

Don Willett

But do not understand me as saying, or for one moment suggesting, that women legislators should confine themselves to doing only social service work. Not at all.

Edith Rogers

When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.

Edmund Burke

When public spending in the form of transfer payments makes various services and benefits free of charge, work is discouraged. Yet it is precisely Social Security that legislators fear to cut.

Edmund Phelps

Democracy demands that judges confine themselves to a narrow sphere of influence - that is why the late Alexander Bickel called the judiciary the 'Least Dangerous Branch.' In a world governed by a proper conception of their role, judges don't play at being legislators - they leave that job to our elected representatives.

Edwin Meese

Moses was the greatest legislator and the commander in chief of perhaps the first liberation army.

Elie Wiesel