100 result(s) for James Madison Quotes.
"Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires."
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."
"Without justice being freely, fully, and impartially administered, neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property, can be protected."
"A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person."
"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."
"It is of great importance in a republic, not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers; but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part."
"In Republics, the great danger is that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority."
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"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."
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives."
"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Religion & Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
"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 in blood for centuries."
"Avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty."
"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."
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
"Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things."
"The latent causes of faction are sown in the nature of man."
"Philosophy is common sense with big words."
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"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."
"A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species."
"The advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, by all proper means, will not, I trust, need recommendation."
"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 support?"
"Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power."
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
"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."
"Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."
"To the press alone, checkered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression."
"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."
"To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical idea."
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
"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"
"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."
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"Religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
"The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity."
"Our country's honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world."
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
"The truth is that wars are seldom caused by spontaneous hatreds between people, for there are natural enmities between many people, especially when different nations are the empires."
"Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power."
"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
"If men were angels, no government would be necessary."
"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty."
"The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money."
"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
"All men having power ought to be distrusted."
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands will ever be liable to abuse."
"Religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together."
"A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people."
"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."
"Conscience is the most sacred of all property."
"The censorial power is in the people over the Government and not in the Government over the people."
"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
"The advancement of science and the diffusion of knowledge and virtue among the people, being essential to the preservation of their rights and liberties."
"It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties."
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives."
"The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted."
"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."
"The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world."
"The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted."
"The purpose of separation of powers is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner that each may be a check on the other that the private interest of every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights."
"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."
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; And people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined."
"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."
"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."
"As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights."
"Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own debts."
"In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself."
"I should consider myself guilty of an unpardonable presumption, were I to omit the expression of my grateful acknowledgement for the honor done me by the choice."
"Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done."
"The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home."
"Equal laws protecting equal rights, are found to be the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country."
"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."
"The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home."
"What is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?"
"We are teaching the world the great truth that Governments do better without Kings & Nobles than with them. The experiment ought to be encouraged."
"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."
"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."
"That useful alterations will be suggested by experience, could not but be foreseen."
"A well-instructed people alone can be permanently free."
"The invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents."
"Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society."
"The essence of Government is power; and power, delegated to those who manage it, must be exercised throughout the community, or it becomes ineffectual."
"It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part."
"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."
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect."
"Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations."
"The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a model; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world."
"We are teaching the world the great truth that Governments do better without Kings & Nobles than with them. The experiment is so interesting that we should not be discouraged too easily."
"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. 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 is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary."
"We are free today substantially, but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few."
"It is sufficiently obvious, that persons and property are the two great subjects on which Governments are to act; and that the rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted."
"Equal laws protecting equal rights, are found to be the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country; never was this truth moreARNOLD manifest than during our recent trials of treason, when it was demonstrated that no efforts of domestic sedition, or foreign invasion, could weaken the love of a people who saw themselves defended by impartial laws."
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
"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."
"The capacity of the female mind for all things great and good demonstrates the folly and the wickedness of those systems which, in consult with custom, combine to subject them."
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