“The Constitution deals with substance, not shadows.”

— Stephen Johnson Field

Cummings v. State of Missouri, 71 U. S. 277, 325 (1866).

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The Constitution deals with substance, not shadows." by Stephen Johnson Field?

Stephen Johnson Field 3

American politician 1816–1899

Related quotes

“As long as politics is the shadow cast on society by big business, the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance.”

John Dewey (1859–1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer

Quoted in John Dewey and American Democracy by Robert Westbrook (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), p. 440; cited in Understanding Power http://www.understandingpower.com/Chapter9.htm#f16| (2002) by Noam Chomsky, ch. 9, footnote 16; originally from "The Need for a New Party" (1931) by John Dewey, Later Works 6, http://books.google.com/books?id=0xPFJ2uwpbIC&lpg=PA163&ots=dd3ciwpXoJ&dq=%22shadow%20cast%22%20dewey&pg=PA163#v=onepage&q&f=false| p. 163. (Via Westbrook.)
Misc. Quotes

“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.”

Aesop (-620–-564 BC) ancient Greek storyteller

The Dog and the Shadow.

“As shadows attend substances, so words follow upon things.”

Richard Chenevix Trench (1807–1886) Irish bishop

Study of Words; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 907.

“No, no, I am but shadow of myself:
You are deceived, my substance is not here;”

William Shakespeare Henry VI, Part 1

Source: Henry VI, Part 1

“Coleridge wrote, "Dreams are no shadows, but the very substances and calamities of my life.”

Sidney Sheldon book Memories of Midnight

Source: Memories of Midnight

“Man is a torch borne in the wind; a dream
But of a shadow, summ'd with all his substance.”

George Chapman Bussy D'Ambois

Act I, scene i.
Bussy D'Ambois (1607)

“Usually, if we hate, it is the shadow of the person that we hate, rather than the substance.”

Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist

"Hate Is Rarely a Personal Matter"
The Best of Sydney J. Harris (1975)
Context: Usually, if we hate, it is the shadow of the person that we hate, rather than the substance. We may hate a person because he reminds us of someone we feared and disliked when younger; or because we see in him some gross caricature of what we find repugnant in ourself; or because he symbolizes an attitude that seems to threaten us.

“This text is, in fact, a rerun of a great part of the substance of the constitutional treaty.”

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1926–2020) President of France

On the Lisbon Treaty, in his blog, 25 June 2007, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing: Conclusions du Conseil européen de Bruxelles, 21 et 22 juin 2007 http://vge-europe.eu/index.php?post/2007/06/25/Conclusions-du-Conseil-europeen-de-Bruxelles-21-et-22-juin-2007, 25 June 2007.

“The image, more interesting than its original, has become the original. The shadow has become the substance.”

Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American historian

Source: The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961), p. 204.

“What is the purpose of being really intelligent if not to have the substance of what you want without mistaking it for the shadow?”

Robert Sheckley book Welcome to the Standard Nightmare

Welcome to the Standard Nightmare (p. 102)
Short fiction, The Robot Who Looked Like Me (1978)

“The Constitution deals with substance, not shadows.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Stephen Johnson Field 3

Related quotes

Related topics