They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.
JAMES MADISONWhat prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?
More James Madison Quotes
-
-
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 -
The internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself.
JAMES MADISON -
The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
JAMES MADISON -
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
JAMES MADISON -
A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.
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 -
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 -
Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.
JAMES MADISON -
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 -
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
JAMES MADISON -
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
JAMES MADISON -
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
JAMES MADISON -
Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.
JAMES MADISON -
The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
JAMES MADISON -
The capacity of the female mind for studies of the highest order cannot be doubted, having been sufficiently illustrated by its works of genius, of erudition, and of science.
JAMES MADISON