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James Madison

50 quotes

James Madison (1751–1836) was an American statesman who served as the fourth President of the United States. Known as the "Father of the Constitution," Madison played a central role in drafting and promoting the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. His political writings, particularly the Federalist Papers, remain foundational texts of democratic governance.

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

— James Madison

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All Quotes by James Madison

“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.”

— James Madison

Food

“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.”

— James Madison

Government

“Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.”

— James Madison

Best

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

— James Madison

Home

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

— James Madison

War

“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.”

— James Madison

War

“A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.”

— James Madison

Best

“To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.”

— James Madison

Government

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

— James Madison

Government

“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

Government

“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.”

— James Madison

Trust

“A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.”

— James Madison

Government

“And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”

— James Madison

Government

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

— James Madison

Government

“What 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 Madison

Learning

“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

Government

“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

Men

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

— James Madison

Knowledge

“To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.”

— James Madison

Alone

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

— James Madison

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