All JAMES MADISON Quotes about “Opinions”

“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.”
“Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.”
“There is not a more important and fundamental principle in legislation, than that the ways and means ought always to face the public engagements; that our appropriations should ever go hand in hand with our promises. To say that the United States should be answerable for twenty-five millions of dollars without knowing whether the ways and means can be provided, and without knowing whether those who are to succeed us will think with us on the subject, would be rash and unjustifiable. Sir, in my opinion, it would be hazarding the public faith in a manner contrary to every idea of prudence.”
“Nothing is so contagious as opinion, especially on questions which, being susceptible of very different glosses, beget in the mind a distrust of itself.”
“[Montesquieu] lifted the veil from the venerable errors which enslaved opinion, and pointed the way to those luminous truths of which he had but a glimpse himself.”
“I have ever regarded the freedom of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect.”
“Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, in favor of private rights and public happiness.”

More James Madison quote about:

You may also like:

Alexander Hamilton
Founding Father of the United States
Andrew Jackson
7th U.S. President
Benjamin Franklin
Founding Father of the United States
Dolley Madison
Former First Lady of the United States
George Washington
1st U.S. President
James K. Polk
11th U.S. President
James Monroe
5th U.S. President
John Adams
2nd U.S. President
John Quincy Adams
6th U.S. President
Martin Van Buren
8th U.S. President
Thomas Jefferson
3rd U.S. President
William Henry Harrison
9th U.S. President