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James Madison Quotes


Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.

The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.

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.

The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.

The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy.

The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

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. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.

The internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself.

The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad.

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.

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.

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.

The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.

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.

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.