James Madison Quotes

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.
James Madison

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

Made, Generation, Bear

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

Home, Truth, Real

Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.
James Madison

Best, Long, Through

All that seems indispensible in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former.
James Madison

Made, Living, Between

In no instance have... the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.
James Madison

Churches, Guardians, Liberties

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.
James Madison

War, Liberty, Public

The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy.
James Madison

Food, Happy, May

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

Power, Done, Wrong

There is no maxim, in my opinion, which is more liable to be misapplied, and which, therefore, more needs elucidation, than the current one, that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong.
James Madison

Political, Wrong, Opinion

The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.
James Madison

Hope, Happy, Liberty

The capacity of the female mind for studies of the highest order cannot be doubted, having been sufficiently illustrated by its works of genius, of erudition, and of science.
James Madison

Science, Mind, Cannot

I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a subdivision of Property.
James Madison

Government, Doubt, Found

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.
James Madison

Power, Government, Hold

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
James Madison

Men, Power, Truth

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
James Madison

Power, Government, Human

By rendering the labor of one, the property of the other, they cherish pride, luxury, and vanity on one side; on the other, vice and servility, or hatred and revolt.
James Madison

Hatred, Pride, Labor

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
James Madison

May, Said, Rights

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
James Madison

War, Question, Whether

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
James Madison

Great, Men, Government

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.
James Madison

Long, Different, Liberty

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, Government, Less

Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
James Madison

Home, Truth, Real

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.
James Madison

Happiness, Government, Liberty

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.
James Madison

Nature, Men, Government

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: President

Born: March 16, 1751

Died: June 28, 1836

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