Menu

 Authors
A B C D E F
G H I J K L
M N O P Q R
S T U V W S
Y Z
Get Socialize
My Account
Make Free Wallpaper

"50 James Madison Quotes & Sayings

      American     /     View profile
Born: 16 March 1751. Died: 28 June 1836 | President | Statesman | Philosopher | Diplomat |

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

Angels Government Men Necessary
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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.

Abroad Against Charged Danger
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

Advantage Afraid Almost American
  Favorite Make wallpaper

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

Come Enemy Fighting Foreign
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

Branches Charter Constitutional Derived
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Administer Assemble Citizens Consisting
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Abuse Essence Ever Government
  Favorite Make wallpaper
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
Having Men Ought Power
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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 and sudden usurpations.

Believe Freedom Gradual I Believe
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

Arm Forever Gives Govern
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Advancement Diffusion Guardian Knowledge
  Favorite Make wallpaper

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.

Arms Best Body Composed
  Favorite Make wallpaper

What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?

Any Before Branch Commerce
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution.

Accepted Alone Concur Constitution
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.

Blood Ceaseless Centuries Church
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Against Become Danger Defense
  Favorite Make wallpaper

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

Control Enable First Framing
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.

Diversity Faculties First Government
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.

Against Best Crafty Dangerous
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Government Greatest Human Human Nature
  Favorite Make wallpaper

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

Alarm Experiment First Liberties
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Equally He His Man
  Favorite Make wallpaper

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

Avail Cannot Choice Laws
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Abuse Abuse Of Power Also Endangered
  Favorite Make wallpaper
All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.
Certain Certain Degree Degree Having
  Favorite Make wallpaper
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
Could Freedom Midst Nation
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

Because Develops Dreaded Enemies
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

Any Case Cause Decide
  Favorite Make wallpaper
Philosophy is common sense with big words.
Big Common Philosophy Sense
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.

Begets Confidence Religious Sentiments
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Alone Free Free People People
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Aid Flourishes Government Greater
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Been Churches Guardians Instance
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Danger Great Majority May
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.

Constitution Example Happy Hope
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Bondage Enterprise Every Mind
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Acquiring Both Farce Government
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.

Bear Burden Carrying Each
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.

Acquire Acquired Gives Natural
  Favorite Make wallpaper

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

Both Done Doubt Every
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.

Affairs Betray Calculate Every
  Favorite Make wallpaper

There is no maxim, in my opinion, which is more liable to be misapplied, and which, therefore, more needs elucidation, than the current one, that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong.

Current In My Opinion Interest Liable
  Favorite Make wallpaper

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.

Different Different Opinions Exercise Fallible
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment.

Abolition Capital Capital Punishment Entire
  Favorite Make wallpaper

War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.

Contains Folly Hoped Much
  Favorite Make wallpaper

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

Communication Free His Man
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Any reading not of a vicious species must be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes.

Any Apt Classes Fill
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself.

Blessings Effects Internal Itself
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic.

Commercial Generally Oppressive Shackles
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.

Best Country Easy Journey
  Favorite Make wallpaper

James Madison Quotes & Sayings