James Madison quotes

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. (James Madison)
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse. View quote
James Madison
I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. View quote
James Madison
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. View quote
James Madison
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect. View quote
James Madison
The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world. View quote
James Madison
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. View quote
James Madison
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. View quote
James Madison
The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad. View quote
James Madison
All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree. View quote
James Madison
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)
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty. View quote
James Madison
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. View quote
James Madison
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. View quote
James Madison
Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. View quote
James Madison
Philosophy is common sense with big words. View quote
James Madison
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. View quote
James Madison
As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. View quote
James Madison
Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labor of slaves. View quote
James Madison
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. View quote
James Madison
The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. (James Madison)
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. View quote
James Madison
Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty. View quote
James Madison
American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance of those of their own country. The same just and benevolent motives which produced interdiction in force against this criminal conduct will doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of suppressing the evil. View quote
James Madison
As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other, and the former will be objects to which the latter attach themselves. View quote
James Madison