James Madison Quotes

What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?
James Madison

May, Before, Knows

Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.
James Madison

Political, Done, Darkness

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

Society, Government, Person

Commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic.
James Madison

Commercial, Unjust, Oppressive

A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.
James Madison

Happiness, Political, Liberty

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
James Madison

Made, Ambition, Counteract

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.
James Madison

Experiment, Alarm, Liberties

Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.
James Madison

Wisdom, May, Betray

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.
James Madison

Mind, Religious, Noble

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

Knowledge, True, Liberty

The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.
James Madison

Personal, Social, Natural

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
James Madison

Government, Rights, Protection

Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.
James Madison

Confidence, Union, Religious

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.
James Madison

Good, Reading, Fill

I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment.
James Madison

Regret, Fair, Full

If we are to take for the criterion of truth the majority of suffrages, they ought to be gotten from those philosophic and patriotic citizens who cultivate their reason.
James Madison

Truth, Reason, Majority

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.
James Madison

Best, Mind, Liberty

Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.
James Madison

Religion, Government, Greater

The internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself.
James Madison

Blessings, Liberty, Policy

The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.
James Madison

State, Church, Separation

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

Alone, Humanity, Reason

War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.
James Madison

War, Reason, Progress

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?
James Madison

Learning, Liberty, Support

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: President

Born: March 16, 1751

Died: June 28, 1836

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