To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.
JAMES MADISONTo suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.
JAMES MADISONThe means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
JAMES MADISONUnion of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.
JAMES MADISONThe internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself.
JAMES MADISONThe rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
JAMES MADISONThe 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 MADISONThere 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 MADISONAs long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.
JAMES MADISONIn Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
JAMES MADISONWhenever 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 MADISONThat part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.
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?
JAMES MADISONThe essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
JAMES MADISONAll 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 MADISONA pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.
JAMES MADISONDespotism 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