James Madison Quotes About Character

Quotes about: Character

• With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.

  James Madison

  Character, Government, Liberty

  James Madison's letter to James Robertson, April 20, 1831.

• The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it.

  James Madison

  God, Wise, Powerful

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.51, University of Virginia Press

• Stability in government is essential to national character and to the advantages annexed to it, as well as to that repose and confidence in the minds of the people, which are among the chief blessings of civil society.

  James Madison

  Character, Patriotic, Blessing

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Quentin P. Taylor, John Jay (1998). “The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers”, p.73, Rowman & Littlefield

• The right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon . . . has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right.

  James Madison

  Communication, Character, People

  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.23

• But the mere circumstance of complexion cannot deprive them of the character of men.

  James Madison

  Character, Men, Human Nature

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

• Respect for character is always diminished in proportion to the number among whom the blame or praise is to be divided.

  James Madison

  Respect, Character, Numbers

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

• Outlets for the freed blacks are alone wanted for the erasure of the blot from our Republican character.

  James Madison

  Character, Slavery, Republican

  James Madison (1865). “Letters and other writings of James Madison”, p.60

• It is due to justice; due to humanity; due to truth; due to the sympathies of our nature; in fine, to our character as a people, both abroad and at home, that they should be considered, as much as possible, in the light of human beings, and not as mere property. As such, they are acted on by our laws, and have an interest in our laws. They may be considered as making a part, though a degraded part, of the families to which they belong.

  James Madison

  Character, Home, Light

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

• And may I not be allowed to ... read in the character of the American people, in their devotion to true liberty and to the Constitution which is its palladium [protection], ... a Government which watches over ... the equal interdict [prohibition] against encroachments and compacts between religion and the state.

  James Madison

  Character, Government, People

• The political truths declared in that solemn manner acquire by degrees the character of fundamental maxims of free Government, and as they become incorporated with national sentiment, counteract the impulses of interest and passion.

  James Madison

  Passion, Character, Government

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

• If justice, good faith, honor, gratitude and all the other qualities which enoble the character of a nation, and fulfill the ends of Government be the fruits of our establishments, the cause of liberty will acquire a dignity and lustre, which it has never yet enjoyed, and an example will be set, which can not but have the most favorable influence on the rights of Mankind.

  James Madison

  Gratitude, Freedom, Character

  Jonathan Elliot, James Madison, United States. Constitutional Convention (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.131

• [Regarding legislative assemblies,] the number ought at most to be kept within a certain limit, in order to avoid the confusion and intemperance of a multitude. In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever characters composed, passion never fails to wrest the scepter from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

  James Madison

  Character, Passion, Order

  James Madison, John Jay (1901). “The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States”

• [R]efusing or not refusing to execute a law to stamp it with its final character . . . makes the Judiciary department paramount in fact to the Legislature, which was never intended and can never be proper.

  James Madison

  Character, Law, Finals

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