James Madison famous quotes

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

#Country #People #Liberty

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

#Inspirational #Fear #War

Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.
-- James Madison

#Government #Charity #Constitution

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

#Men #Rights #Liberty

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

#Freedom #War #Political

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.
-- James Madison

#Fear #War #Enemy

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.
-- James Madison

#Patriotic #Men #Law

It is very certain that [the commerce clause] grew out of the abuse of the power by the importing States in taxing the non-importing, and was intended as a negative and preventive provision against injustice among the States themselves, rather than as a power to be used for the positive purposes of the General Government.
-- James Madison

#Government #Abuse #Purpose

Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.
-- James Madison

#Bible #God #Religious

The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.
-- James Madison

#Confidence #Money #Self Esteem

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
-- James Madison

#Adversity #Angel #Men

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

#War #Liberty #Bears

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

#Freedom #War #Mean

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

#War #Liberty #Causes

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

#Respect #Rights #Majority

Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.
-- James Madison

#Strength #Peace #Army

America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.
-- James Madison

#Art #Agriculture #America

If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one....
-- James Madison

#Government #Done #Socialism

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.
-- James Madison

#Religious #Ignorance #Pride

[I]t is more convenient to prevent the passage of a law, than to declare it void after it has passed.
-- James Madison

#Law #Void #Legislature

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

#Giving #Liberty #Protection

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
-- James Madison

#Country #Gun #Government

I have received your letter of the 6th, with the eloquent discourse delivered at the consecration of the Jewish Synagogue. Having ever regarded the freedom of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect, and the secure enjoyment of it as the best human provision for bringing all either into the same way of thinking, or into that mutual charity which is the only substitute, I observe with pleasure the view you give of the spirit in which your sect partake of the blessings offered by our Government and laws.
-- James Madison

#Religious #Thinking #Blessing

Having outlived so many of my contemporaries, I ought not to forget that I may be thought to have outlived myself.
-- James Madison

#May #Forget

Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few ... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
-- James Madison

#Inspirational #War #Army

A government resting on the minority is an aristocracy, not a Republic, and could not be safe with a numerical and physical force against it, without a standing army, an enslaved press and a disarmed populace.
-- James Madison

#Army #Gun #Government

The great desideratum in Government is, so to modify the sovereignty as that it may be sufficiently neutral between different parts of the Society to controul one part from invading the rights of another, and at the same time sufficiently controuled itself, from setting up an interest adverse to that of the entire Society.
-- James Madison

#Rights #Government #Different

Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks-no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea, if there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.
-- James Madison

#Men #Ideas #People

Americans need not fear the federal government because they enjoy the advantage of being armed, which you possess over the people of almost every other nation.
-- James Madison

#Freedom #Gun #Government

Conscience is the most sacred of all property; other property depending in part on positive law, the exercise of that, being a natural and unalienable right.
-- James Madison

#Exercise #Law #Sacred

On the distinctive principles of the Government ... of the U. States, the best guides are to be found in ... The Declaration of Independence, as the fundamental Act of Union of these States.
-- James Madison

#Government #Independence #Principles

A good government implies two things: first, fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained.
-- James Madison

#Mean #Government #Two

The civil government ... functions with complete success ... by the total separation of the Church from the State.
-- James Madison

#Government #Religion #Atheism

Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them.
-- James Madison

#People #Way

I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.
-- James Madison

#Politics #Constitution #Granted

Equal laws protecting equal rights…the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country.
-- James Madison

#Love #Loyalty #Country

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security.
-- James Madison

#War #Government #Important

I, sir, have always conceived - I believe those who proposed the constitution conceived,and it is still more fully known, and more material to observe, those who ratified the constitution conceived, that this is not an indefinite government deriving its powers from the general terms prefixed to the specified powers - but, a limited government tied down to the specified powers, which explain and define the general terms.
-- James Madison

#Believe #Government #Constitution

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.
-- James Madison

#Nature #Patriotic #Angel

Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue; or in any manner affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change and can trace its consequences; a harvest reared not by themselves but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few not for the many.
-- James Madison

#Law #Citizens #Body

They can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society.
-- James Madison

#Law #Operations #Mass

The most productive system of finance will always be the least burdensome.
-- James Madison

#Finance #Productive

We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.
-- James Madison

#Bible #God #Religious

A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest while we are building ideal monuments of Renown and Bliss here we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.
-- James Madison

#Eye #Names #Heaven

The very definition of tyranny is when all powers are gathered under one place.
-- James Madison

#Definitions #Tyranny

It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it [the Constitution] a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.
-- James Madison

#Men #Reflection #Hands

The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it.
-- James Madison

#War #Government #Branches

Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.
-- James Madison

#Party #Rights #Justice

There is in every breast a sensibility to marks of honor, of favor, of esteem, and of confidence, which, apart from all considerations of interest, is some pledge for grateful and benevolent returns. Ingratitude is a common topic of declamation against human nature; and it must be confessed, that instances of it are but too infrequent and flagrant both in public and in private life. But the universal and extreme indignation which it inspires, is itself a proof of the energy and prevalence of the contrary sentiment.
-- James Madison

#Grateful #Inspire #Honor

The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature.
-- James Madison

#War #Judging #Causes

It becomes all therefore who are friends of a Government based on free principles to reflect, that by denying the possibility of a system partly federal and partly consolidated, and who would convert ours into one either wholly federal or wholly consolidated, in neither of which forms have individual rights, public order, and external safety, been all duly maintained, they aim a deadly blow at the last hope of true liberty on the face of the Earth.
-- James Madison

#Blow #Order #Rights

It will be remembered, that a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is solemnly enjoined by most of the state constitutions, and particularly by our own, as a necessary safeguard against the danger of degeneracy, to which republics are liable, as well as other governments, though in a less degree than others.
-- James Madison

#Education #Government #Fundamentals

In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any.
-- James Madison

#Government #Law #Republic

Who does not see that . . . the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?
-- James Madison

#Support #Church #Doe

No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.
-- James Madison

#Government #Order #Long

Religion [is] the basis and foundation of Government
-- James Madison

#Bible #God #Religious

That the foundation of our national policy should be laid in private morality. If individuals be not influenced by moral principles, it is in vain to look for public virtue; it is, therefore, the duty of legislators to enforce, both by precept and example, the utility, as well as the necessity, of a strict adherence to the rules of distributive justice.
-- James Madison

#Justice #Voting #Foundation

The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it.
-- James Madison

#God #Wise #Powerful

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
-- James Madison

#Government #Hands #Political

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

#People #Liberty #Wells

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

#Government #Federal Government #Constitution

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

#Truth #Men #Political

By rendering the labor of one, the property of the other, they cherish pride, luxury, and vanity on one side; on the other, vice and servility, or hatred and revolt.
-- James Madison

#Pride #Two Sides #Luxury

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

#Education #Freedom #Inspirational Life

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

#Power #Government #Hands

It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.
-- James Madison

#Government #Perfect #Evil

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

#Miracle #Liberty #Example

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

#Country #Journey #Medicine

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation.... Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
-- James Madison

#Military #Government #Europe

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.
-- James Madison

#Peace #War #Government

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

#Religious #Perspective #Mind

The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.
-- James Madison

#Numbers #People #Religion

Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense.
-- James Madison

#Parent #Liberty #Youth

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

#Exercise #Men #Long

If we resort for a criterion to the different principles on which different forms of government are established, we may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior.
-- James Madison

#Government #Names #Office

Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.
-- James Madison

#Real #Government #Public Opinion

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?
-- James Madison

#May #Prudent #Hazards

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

#Atheist #People #Church

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.
-- James Madison

#Government #Ideas #People

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
-- James Madison

#Rights #Government #Liberty

A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.
-- James Madison

#Military #Long #Liberty

The people can never willfully betray their own interests: But they may possibly be betrayed by the representatives of the people; and the danger will be evidently greater where the whole legislative trust is lodged in the hands of one body of men, than where the concurrence of separate and dissimilar bodies is required in every public act.
-- James Madison

#Men #Hands #People

Conscience is the most sacred of all property.
-- James Madison

#Religious #Liberty #Sacred

The safety and happiness of society are the objects at which all political institutions aim, and to which all such institutions must be sacrificed.
-- James Madison

#Happiness #Safety #Political

The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.
-- James Madison

#Law #America #Constitution

There never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them.
-- James Madison

#Men #America #Assembly

Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history.
-- James Madison

#Government #Religion #Atheism

In the latter sense, a man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them. He has a property of peculiar value in his religious opinions, and in the profession and practice dictated by them . . . . He has an equal property in the free use of his faculties and free choice of the objects on which to employ them. In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
-- James Madison

#Religious #Communication #Men

It is a misfortune incident to republican government, though in a less degree than to other governments, that those who administer it, may forget their obligations to their constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust.
-- James Madison

#Government #Important #May

I regret, as much as any member, the unavoidable weight and duration of the burdens to be imposed; having never been a proselyte to the doctrine, that public debts are public benefits. I consider them, on the contrary, as evils which ought to be removed as fast as honor and justice will permit.
-- James Madison

#Regret #Government #Justice

I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse and in a republican government more than in any other.
-- James Madison

#Government #Principles #Debt

What is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue this part [the necessary and proper clause] of the Constitution and exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them . . . the success of the usurpation will depend on the executive and judiciary departments, which are to expound and give effect to the legislative acts; and in a last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people, who can by the elections of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers.
-- James Madison

#Exercise #Giving #People

[T]he great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachment of the others.
-- James Madison

#Mean #Giving #Separation

The growing wealth aquired by them corporations never fails to be a source of abuses.
-- James Madison

#Abuse #Democracy #Growing

A pure democracy can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will be felt by a majority, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party. Hence it is, that democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.
-- James Madison

#Party #Passion #Sacrifice

Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his own.
-- James Madison

#Lying #Men #Rights

That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.
-- James Madison

#Men #Class #Safety

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.
-- James Madison

#Ambition #Simple #Government

The management of foreign relations appears to be the most susceptible of abuse of all the trusts committed to a Government, because they can be concealed or disclosed, or disclosed in such parts and at such times as will best suit particular views; and because the body of the people are less capable of judging, and are more under the influence of prejudices, on that branch of their affairs, than of any other. Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
-- James Madison

#Real #Home #Loss

Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty ought to have it ever before his eyes that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it.
-- James Madison

#Country #Mean #Eye