The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.
JAMES MADISONIt 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.
More James Madison Quotes
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The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.
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In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
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We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.
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The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.
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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 -
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.
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The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
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 -
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
JAMES MADISON -
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 -
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 -
Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.
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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 -
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
JAMES MADISON -
Philosophy is common sense with big words.
JAMES MADISON -
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 -
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
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I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment.
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.
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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 -
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 -
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 -
Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.
JAMES MADISON -
As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.
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The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
JAMES MADISON -
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