Sam Ervin

“I used to think that the Civil War was our country's greatest tragedy, but I do remember that there were some redeeming features in the Civil War... I see no redeeming features in Watergate.”

“If the many allegations made to this date are true, then the burglars who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate were, in effect, breaking into the home of every citizen of the United States.”

“The President seems to extend executive privilege way out past the atmosphere. What he says is executive privilege is nothing but executive poppycock.”

“The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.”

“I'm just a country lawyer.”

“Divine right went out with the American Revolution and doesn't belong to White House aides.”

“My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.”

“The right to privacy is the right to be let alone.”

“The saddest epitaph which can be carved in memory of a vanished liberty is that it was lost because its possessors failed to stretch forth a saving hand while yet there was time.”

“I have an old-fashioned, perhaps antiquated, idea that the objective of an investigation is to find the truth.”

“Political freedom is the right of private citizens to vote for the people who make their laws and levy their taxes.”

“There is nothing in the Constitution that authorizes or makes it the official duty of a president to have anything to do with criminal activities.”

“God give us the courage to do what is right, and the wisdom to know what is right.”

“A law which is not constitutional is not a law.”

“I'm not a constitutional lawyer. That's why I can understand the constitution.”

“I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.”