The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
JAMES MADISONThe internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself.
More James Madison Quotes
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Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.
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In no instance have… the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.
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The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
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The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
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What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
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Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
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The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
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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.
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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.
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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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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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The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
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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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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.
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The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests.
JAMES MADISON