The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
JAMES MADISONLiberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.
More James Madison Quotes
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The internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself.
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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.
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Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.
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The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
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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.
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The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.
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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.
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As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
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Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.
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The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
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I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment.
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The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.
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A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.
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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 -
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 -
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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A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.
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Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense.
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They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.
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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 -
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
JAMES MADISON -
War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.
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The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
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We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.
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Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.
JAMES MADISON -
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