A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.
JAMES MADISONNo nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
More James Madison Quotes
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In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
JAMES MADISON -
I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution.
JAMES MADISON -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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.
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.
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.
JAMES MADISON -
What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
JAMES MADISON -
A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.
JAMES MADISON -
The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
JAMES MADISON -
Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.
JAMES MADISON -
A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.
JAMES MADISON -
Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people.
JAMES MADISON -
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
JAMES MADISON