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James Madison Quotes - Page 5

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Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.

Ignorance, Forever

Letter toW. T. Barry, 4 Aug. 1822

[T]he powers granted by the proposed Constitution are the gift of the people, and may be resumed by them when perverted to their oppression, and every power not granted thereby remains with the people.

People, May, Constitution

James Madison (1904). “The Writings of James Madison: 1787-1790”

Liberty is to faction what air is to fire.

Fire, Air, Liberty

The Federalist no. 10 (1788)

Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history.

Government, Religion, Atheism

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

Men, Rights, Liberty

James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

Those who proposed the Constitution knew, and those who ratified the Constitution also knew that this is...a limited government tied down to specified powers....It was never supposed or suspected that the old Congress could give away the money of the states to encourage agriculture or for any other purpose they pleased.

Government, Agriculture, Giving

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

Exercise, Secular Society, Law

Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates, J. W. Randolph, James Madison (1850). “The Virginia Report of 1799-1800: Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, Including the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia and Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions”, p.136

But the mild voice of reason, pleading the cause of an enlarged and permanent interest, is but too often drowned, before public bodies as well as individuals, by the clamors of an impatient avidity for immediate and immoderate gain.

Voice, People, Body

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States”, p.196

A government resting on the minority is an aristocracy, not a Republic, and could not be safe with a numerical and physical force against it, without a standing army, an enslaved press and a disarmed populace.

Army, Gun, Government

Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised; divided--the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson...? The people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it.... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free.

Men, Race, People

Toleration is not the opposite of intolerance, but is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, the other of granting it.

Opposites, Liberty, Assuming

"Rights of Man". Book by Thomas Paine, 1791.

The preservation of a free government requires not merely that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people. The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority and are Tyrants. The people who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.

Rights, Government, Law

James Madison (1867). “1769-1793”, p.163

[A]ll power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty and the right of acquiring property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their government whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purpose of its institution.

Government, People, Safety

James Madison (1999). “Writings”

It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.

Freedom, Real, War

James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.49, University of Virginia Press

The powers of the federal government are enumerated; it can only operate in certain cases; it has legislative powers on defined and limited objects, beyond which it cannot extend its jurisdiction.

Wisdom, Government, Cases

James Madison (1836). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”, p.95

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.

Exercise, Men, Long

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.48, Coventry House Publishing

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.

Parent, Liberty, Youth

"Public Education Isn't Socialism, and Neither Is Liz Warren" by Charles P. Pierce, www.esquire.com. November 9, 2011.

A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts.

Imagination, Events, Visionaries

James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

The President is responsible to the public for the conduct of the person he has nominated and appointed.

President, Responsible, Persons

James Madison (1999). “Writings”

It is very certain that [the commerce clause] grew out of the abuse of the power by the importing States in taxing the non-importing, and was intended as a negative and preventive provision against injustice among the States themselves, rather than as a power to be used for the positive purposes of the General Government.

Government, Abuse, Negative

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.

Ambition, Simple, Government

James Madison, John Jay (1847). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.192

In the latter sense, a man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them. He has a property of peculiar value in his religious opinions, and in the profession and practice dictated by them. He has an equal property in the free use of his faculties and free choice of the objects on which to employ them. In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

Religious, Communication, Men

"Advice to My Country".

Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

Fear, War, Enemy

James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.

Government, Taxation, Rewards

James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

It is vain to say that enlightened statesmen will always be able to adjust their interests. Enlightened men will not always be at the helm.

Men, Able, Enlightened

Born: March 16, 1751 - June 28, 1836
Occupation: 4th U.S. President

Quotes: 548

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