James Madison Quotes

The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessing of liber...

The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.

In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the ...

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opin...

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Tho...

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natu...

A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to ...

The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the...

To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which...

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.

A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.

Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot af...

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises a...

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his r...

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at h...

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless str...

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that...

Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which c...

Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and ...

It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against ...

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and sil...

Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasan...

In framing a government, which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty is this: ...

Measures are too often decided, not accord­ing to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor p...

During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have...

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... Dur...

Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external...

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind, and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every...

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments,...

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind, and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every...

The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Amo...

A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people t...

As the cool and deliberate sense of the community ought, in all governments, and actually will, in a...

It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses ...

Liberty is to faction what air is to fire...

The truth is, that in all cases a certain number at least seems to be necessary to secure the benefi...

Philosophy is common sense with big words.

The happy Union of these States is a wonder their Constitution a miracle their example the hope of L...

Since the general civilization of mankind I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of t...

A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as w...

The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.

A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer ...

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent...

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external...

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Gove...

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and da...

In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example and France ha...

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the govern...

Where we see the same faults followed regularly by the same misfortunes, we may reasonably think tha...

Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be ...

Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.

The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of a...

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

I have observed that gentlemen suppose that the general legislature will do every thing mischievous ...

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the pe...

it was impossible to confine a Government to the exercise of express powers; there must necessarily ...

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments ...

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless str...

The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the la...

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose...

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional ch...

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be lia...

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm the...

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each lean...

In no instance have the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.

The capacity of the female mind for studies of the highest order cannot be doubted, having been suff...