Federalist Papers Quotes - Page 3

• From the the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results.

  James Madison

  Degrees, Different, Kind

  The Federalist no. 10 (1788)

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Extend the sphere and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have common motive to invade the rights of other citizens.

  James Madison

  Party, Rights, Majority

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution: Written in 1788”, p.55

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  James Madison

  Freedom, Real, War

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.49, University of Virginia Press

  82 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  James Madison

  Men, Rights, Diversity

  The Federalist no. 10 (1788)

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?

  James Madison

  Christian, Atheist, Religion

  "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments" (1785)

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.

  James Madison

  Men, Causes, Degrees

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.48, Coventry House Publishing

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Religious, Rights, Government

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.241

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• Conscience is the most sacred of all property.

  James Madison

  Religious, Liberty, Sacred

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

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  James Madison

  Patriotic, Small Numbers, Government

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution: Written in 1788”, p.53

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.

  James Madison

  Drawing, Spheres, Vortex

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in 1788”, p.229

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  James Madison

  Reflection, Government, Human Nature

  1788 The Federalist, Jan.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.48, Coventry House Publishing

  38 Copy quote

  Show source

• The most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property.

  James Madison

  Wisdom, Politics, Paper

  10 Copy quote

• It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society.

  James Madison

  Religious, Believe, Men

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

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not.

  James Madison

  Government, Atheism, Liberty

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

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Men, Careers, Tyrants

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.10, Coventry House Publishing

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Show source

• The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate.

  James Madison

  Inspirational, Life, Religious

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

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• This [a state militia system] appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Army, Second Amendment, Right To Bear Arms

  John Church Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton (1860). “History of the Republic of the United States of America: As Traced in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton and of His Contemporaries”, p.140

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The danger of silent accumulations & encroachments by Ecclesiastical Bodies have not sufficiently engaged attention in the U.S. [...] Besides the danger of a direct mixture of Religion & civil Government, 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 ecclesiastical Corporations. [...] The establishment of the chaplainship to Congs. is a palpable violation of equal rights, as well as of Constitutional principles.

  James Madison

  Rights, Government, Evil

  "Monopolies. Perpetuities. Corporations. Ecclesiastical Endowments". Essay by James Madison, founders.archives.gov. Circa January 31, 1820.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Because we hold it for 'a fundamental and undeniable truth', that religion or 'the duty which we owe to our Creator' and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.

  James Madison

  Religion, Religious Truth, Fundamentals

  James Madison (1787). “The Writings of James Madison: 1783-1787”, p.184

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• A pure Democracy, by which I mean a Society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the Government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of Government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party, or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is, that such Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; 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

  "Federalist No. 10 (The Federalist Papers)". Essay by James Madison, November 23, 1787.

  56 Copy quote

  Show source

• To the press alone, chequered 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.

  James Madison

  Errors, Media, Humanity

  James Madison, Thomas Jefferson (1826). “Resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky”, p.51

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  James Madison (1962). “Papers”

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  69 Copy quote

  Show source