All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.
JAMES MADISONWhat 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?
More James Madison Quotes
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The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the state governments, in times of peace and security.
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If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
JAMES MADISON -
What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
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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 -
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 -
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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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 -
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.
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In no instance have… the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.
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War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.
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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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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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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.
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No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
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