James Madison Quotes - Page 2

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• The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed.

  James Madison

  Religious, Rights, Liberty

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

  130 Copy quote

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

  James Madison

  Military, Long, Liberty

  James Madison (1787). “The Writings of James Madison: 1787. The journal of the Constitutional convention”, p.317

  49 Copy quote

• If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

  James Madison

  Adversity, Angel, Men

  The Federalist no. 51 (1788)

  56 Copy quote

• 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

  The Federalist no. 62 (1788).

  78 Copy quote

• Philosophy is common sense with big words.

  James Madison

  Philosophy, Medicine, Common Sense

  13 Copy quote

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

  James Madison

  Education, Freedom, Inspirational Life

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.41, University of Virginia Press

  100 Copy quote

• Democracy was the right of the people to choose their own tyrant.

  James Madison

  Tyrants, People, Democracy

  21 Copy quote

• Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.

  James Madison

  Men, Political, Liberty

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.478

  61 Copy quote

• Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.

  James Madison

  Reality, Liberty, Done

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

  24 Copy quote

• 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. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation and foreign commerce. ... The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives and liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State.

  James Madison

  War, Government, Order

  74 Copy quote

• History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance.

  James Madison

  Lying, Mean, Government

  68 Copy quote

• Those who proposed the Constitution knew, and those who ratified the Constitution also knew that this is...a limited government tied down to specified powers....It was never supposed or suspected that the old Congress could give away the money of the states to encourage agriculture or for any other purpose they pleased.

  James Madison

  Government, Agriculture, Giving

  6 Copy quote
• 

  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

  James Madison (1865). “Letters and other writings of James Madison”, p.471

  54 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Madison

  Patriotic, Blood, Europe

  87 Copy quote

• 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

  46 Copy quote

• There is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by...corporations. The power of all corporations ought to be limited in this respect. The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses.

  James Madison

  Evil, Abuse, Growing

  "Monopolies, Perpetuities, Corporations, Ecclesiastical Endowments". Essay by James Madison, 1817 - 1832.

  15 Copy quote

• Our Constitution represents the work of the finger of Almighty God.

  James Madison

  Constitution, Almighty, Almighty God

  66 Copy quote

• Conscience is the most sacred of all property.

  James Madison

  Religious, Liberty, Sacred

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.479

  23 Copy quote

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

  James Madison

  Freedom, War, Mean

  73 Copy quote

• Despotism can only exist in darkness.

  James Madison

  Darkness, Firmament, Despotism

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

  22 Copy quote

• A people armed and free, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition and is a bulwark for the nation against foreign invasion and domestic oppression.

  James Madison

  Strength, Peace, Ambition

  79 Copy quote

• Democracies have been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death.

  James Madison

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Rights

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.46

  65 Copy quote

• The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.

  James Madison

  People, President, Liberty

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

  48 Copy quote

• A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.

  James Madison

  Party, Passion, Practice

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.44

  8 Copy quote

• With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.

  James Madison

  Character, Government, Liberty

  James Madison's letter to James Robertson, April 20, 1831.

  70 Copy quote

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