James Madison Quotes About Tyranny

Quotes about: Tyranny

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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.

• No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

  James Madison

  Freedom, War, Democracies Have

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

• 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

  Fear, War, Enemy

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

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

  James Madison

  Freedom, War, Mean

• The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

  James Madison

  Government, Hands, Independent Judiciary

  The Federalist no. 47 (1788)

• The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.

  James Madison

  War, Home, Mean

  James Madison (1787). “The Writings of James Madison: 1787. The journal of the Constitutional convention”, p.317

• Democracies have been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death.

  James Madison

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Rights

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.46

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

  James Madison

  Definitions, Tyranny

• The governments of Europe are afraid to trust the people with arms. If they did, the people would certainly shake off the yoke of tyranny, as America did.

  James Madison

  Gun, Government, Europe

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

  James Madison

  Power, Hands, Essence

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

• The house of representatives ... can make no law, which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny.

  James Madison

  Government, Law, People

• Resistance to tyranny is service to God.

  James Madison

  Liberty, Libertarian, Resistance

• The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venal love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.

  James Madison

  Peace, War, Passion

  "The Cost of America's Secret Wars, Then and Now" by Charles P. Pierce, www.esquire.com. December 6, 2011.

• Extend the sphere and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have common motive to invade the rights of other citizens.

  James Madison

  Party, Rights, Majority

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution: Written in 1788”, p.55

• Bills of attainder, ex-post facto laws and laws impairing the obligation of contracts are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation.

  James Madison

  Law, Sound, Principles

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.207

• It is not certain that with this aid alone [possession of arms], they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to posses the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will, and direct the national force; and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned, in spite of the legions which surround it.

  James Madison

  Government, Europe, People

• The danger from legislative usurpations, which, by assembling all power in the same hands, must lead to the same tyranny as is threatened by executive usurpations.

  James Madison

  Hands, Danger, Tyranny

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government”, p.267, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• The inference to which we are brought is that the causes of faction cannot be removed and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects.

  James Madison

  Mean, Relief, Causes

  James Madison, John Jay (1847). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.35

• The smaller the society, the fewer probably will be the distinct parties and interests composing it; the fewer the distinct parties and interests, the more frequently will a majority be found of the same party; . . . the more easily will they concert and execute their plans of oppression.

  James Madison

  Party, Majority, Oppression

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.47

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