James Madison Quotes
Top 100 wise famous quotes and sayings by James Madison
James Madison Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from James Madison on Wise Famous Quotes.
I hope this will find you ... enjoying the commencement of a new year with every prospect that can make it a happy one.
[Christianity] existed and flourishes, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them.
The security intended to the general liberty consists in the frequent election and in the rotation of the members of Congress.
[I]t is more convenient to prevent the passage of a law, than to declare it void after it has passed.
Having outlived so many of my contemporaries, I ought not to forget that I may be thought to have outlived myself.
The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned.
It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.
The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.
The problem to be solved is, not what form of government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.
As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
What a perversion of the normal order of things! ... to make power the primary and central object of the social system, and Liberty but its satellite.
The proposed Constitution is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal constitution; but a composition of both.
Who are to be the objects of popular choice? Every citizen whose merit may recommend him to the esteem and confidence of his country.
The President is responsible to the public for the conduct of the person he has nominated and appointed.
Procrastination in the beginning and precipitation towards the conclusion is the characteristic of such bodies.
I flatter myself [we] have in this country extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind.
Respect for character is always diminished in proportion to the number among whom the blame or praise is to be divided.
We are teaching the world the great truth that Governments do better without Kings & Nobles than with them.
Any reading not of a vicious species must be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes.
Let me recommend the best medicine in the world a long journey at a mild season through a pleasant country in easy stages.
In the extent and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we behold a republican remedy for the disease incident to republican government.
I have ever regarded the freedom of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect.
I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse and in a republican government more than in any other.
Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance.
War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.
It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.
As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.
Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper or safe judges, whether a war ought to be commenced, continued, or concluded.
The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
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.
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.
[The public has] the habit now of invalidating opinions emanating from me by reference to my age and infirmities.
A distinction of property results from that very protection which a free Government gives to unequal faculties of acquiring it.
The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.
A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.
The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.
The establishment of the chaplainship to Congress is a palpable violation of ... constitutional principles.
The safety and happiness of society are the objects at which all political institutions aim, and to which all such institutions must be sacrificed.
Are not the daily devotions conducted by these legal ecclesiastics already degenerating into a scanty attendance, and a tiresome formality?
Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.
Security against foreign danger is one of the primitive objects of civil society. It is an avowed and essential object of the American Union.
A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.
Popular liberty might then have escaped the indelible reproach of decreeing to the same citizens, the hemlock on one day, and statues on the next.
Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.
The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
The rights of man as the foundation of just Government had been long understood but the superstructures projected had been sadly defective
Where a majority are united by a common sentiment, and have an opportunity, the rights of the minor party become insecure.
Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Freedom has more often been lost in small steps by progressive incrementalism, than it has been by catastrophic upheavals such as violence or war.
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.