black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

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

Ceaseless Church Country Dhore Forever Purpose Separation Soak Soil State Strifem
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
JAMES MADISON

Angel Government Men Necessary
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

Charter Constitution Fountain Legimitate People Power
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

Class Good Labour Leisure Read Species Substitute Vicious
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.
JAMES MADISON

Authority Declare Fruit Government Real Support Treasure
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

Equal Man Property Right Said
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

Proprietor Accept Concur Constitution Entire Resort Sense
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

Abate Assume Class Doubt Found Government Misery
All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.
JAMES MADISON

Certain Degree Distrusted Men Ought Powe
What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
JAMES MADISON

Government Human Itself Nature Reflection
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
JAMES MADISON

Abuse Essence Government Hand Human Liable Lodge Must Power
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

Forever Govern Governor Knowledge Mean Own People Power Themselves
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

Affair Calculate Loss Nation Neighbor Stability Sustain Systematic Wisdom
Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people.
JAMES MADISON

Favourite Free Institution Learn Object Ought People
The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
JAMES MADISON

Case Decide Declare Executive Question Right War
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.
JAMES MADISON

Ascertain Education Expense Forward Meet Posses Public Talent Youth
A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.
JAMES MADISON

Administer Assemble Citizen Consist Democracy Government Number Pure Small Society
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

Charge Danger Home Liberty Loss Provision Rank Truth Universal
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

Cherish Labor Luxury Other Pride Property Render Vanity
A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.
JAMES MADISON

Communication Free Man Opinion Property
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

Criterion Gotten Majority Philosophic Suffrage Take Truth Ught
Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
JAMES MADISON

Advantage Arm Being Citizen Country Government People Right Trust
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

Bear Burden Each Generation Made Own War
And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.
JAMES MADISON

Done Doubt Every Example Less Mix New Past Religion Succeed Together
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

Devotion Industry Mainfrstly Morality Number People Priesthood
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

Edify Learn Liberty More Other Seasonable Spectacle
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
JAMES MADISON

Come Country Enemy Fight Guise Land Oppression

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More James Madison Quotes