[justshutupandtakeit]

Both statements are false.

The Constitution is NOT simple but to the simple minded. That is why there are thousands of books written about it.
It was NOT written to limit federal authority. It was written to limit STATE authority and EXPAND federal authority.

The originators/writers of the document, Madison and Hamilton, were not in favor of a BoR only agreeing to mollify opposition to ratification.

The common myths you stated are the result of paying more attention to propagandists than to historical fact.

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"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power not longer susceptible of any definition."

-- Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, February 15, 1791

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"Resolved, That the General Assembly of Virginia, doth unequivocally express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of this State, against every aggression either foreign or domestic ... That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact, to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting the compact; as no further valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them."

-- James Madison, 1799

[45Auto]

Of course, then there's this little tidbit:

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite."

-- James Madison, Federal No. 45, January 26, 1788

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And the 14th Amendment placed further limitations on the powers of state government - those aspects of the B of R have since been "incorporated" to make certain that states could not infringe the basic rights delineated in the B of R.

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I generally defer to the words of the guys who actually wrote the document:

"[The purpose of a written constitution is] to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril that their acquiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those rights."

-- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia Q.XIII, 1782. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, (Memorial Edition) Lipscomb and Bergh, editors, ME 2:178

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"[T]he powers of the federal government are enumerated; it can only operate in certain cases; it has legislative powers on defined and limited objects, beyond which it cannot extend its jurisdiction."

-- James Madison, Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 6, 1788, Elliot's Debates (in the American Memory collection of the Library of Congress)

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"The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-by to the Bill of Rights."

-- H.L. Mencken