"A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happine...
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
~ James Madison ~
Photo by Ákos Szabó
Photo by Ian Turnell
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
More James Madison quotes
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent a...
"In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example and France has followed it, of charters of power granted by lib...
"Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be ...
"To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.
"it was impossible to confine a Government to the exercise of express powers; there must necessarily be admitted powers by implication, unless the Cons...
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
"What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest suppo...
"In no instance have the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.
"Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.
"It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
"In framing a government, which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty is this: You must first enable the government to control th...
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establi...
"Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.
"The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a ...