James Madison Quotes

Quotes about:

• The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.

  James Madison

  Law, America, Constitution

  298 Copy quote
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  Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.

  James Madison

  Strength, Peace, Army

  265 Copy quote

• If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within.

  James Madison

  Taken, Over It, Nations

  215 Copy quote

• Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.

  James Madison

  Rallying Cry, Tyrants, Presidential

  230 Copy quote
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  The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority's ability to harm a minority.

  James Madison

  Majority, Minorities, Purpose

  205 Copy quote
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  Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them.

  James Madison

  Gun, People, Way

  120 Copy quote

• We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.

  James Madison

  Bible, God, Religious

  184 Copy quote

• Democracy is the most vile form of government.

  James Madison

  Government, Democracy, Form

  17 Copy quote

• If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?

  James Madison

  Men, Fit, Ifs

  193 Copy quote

• The ultimate authority resides in the people, and that if the federal government got too powerful and overstepped its authority, then the people would develop plans of resistance and resort to arms.

  James Madison

  Powerful, Government, People

  31 Copy quote
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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.

  James Madison

  Education, Wisdom, Freedom

  1822; cited in U.S. Senate, Alleged Assassination Plots (1975).

  122 Copy quote

• We are free today substantially, but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few. A Republic cannot stand upon bayonets, and when the day comes when the wealth of the nation will be in the hands of a few, then we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nations to the changed conditions.

  James Madison

  Wisdom, Country, Hands

  149 Copy quote

• The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned.

  James Madison

  Bears, Defense, Citizens

  45 Copy quote
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  If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

  James Madison

  Inspirational, Freedom, Fear

  "The Last Enemy" by Rebecca Sato, www.pbs.org. November 11, 2010.

  228 Copy quote

• Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.

  James Madison

  Army, Debt, Libertarian

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.106, University of Virginia Press

  19 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Madison

  Patriotic, Blood, Europe

  84 Copy quote

• Democracy was the right of the people to choose their own tyrant.

  James Madison

  Tyrants, People, Democracy

  21 Copy quote

• I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

  James Madison

  Freedom, Believe, Power

  Speech at Virginia Convention, 5 June 1788

  79 Copy quote

• A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.

  James Madison

  President, Constitution, Ifs

  41 Copy quote

• There is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by...corporations. The power of all corporations ought to be limited in this respect. The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses.

  James Madison

  Evil, Abuse, Growing

  "Monopolies, Perpetuities, Corporations, Ecclesiastical Endowments". Essay by James Madison, 1817 - 1832.

  14 Copy quote

• Americans need not fear the federal government because they enjoy the advantage of being armed, which you possess over the people of almost every other nation.

  James Madison

  Freedom, Gun, Government

  82 Copy quote

• The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.

  James Madison

  People, President, Liberty

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

  46 Copy quote

• The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed.

  James Madison

  Religious, Rights, Liberty

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

  128 Copy quote

• The very definition of tyranny is when all powers are gathered under one place.

  James Madison

  Definitions, Tyranny

  81 Copy quote

• A people armed and free, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition and is a bulwark for the nation against foreign invasion and domestic oppression.

  James Madison

  Strength, Peace, Ambition

  79 Copy quote

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