James Madison Quotes - Page 6

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• 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.

  James Madison

  Army, Gun, Government

  16 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Madison

  Opposites, Liberty, Assuming

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

  11 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Madison

  Ambition, Simple, Government

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

  25 Copy quote

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

  James Madison

  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

  38 Copy quote

• Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

  James Madison

  Mob Rule, Citizens, Assembly

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.272, Coventry House Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• [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.

  James Madison

  People, May, Constitution

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

  6 Copy quote

• A just government has no need for the clergy or the church.

  James Madison

  Government, Church, Needs

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Madison

  Rights, Government, Law

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

  11 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Madison

  Imagination, Events, Visionaries

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

  26 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Madison

  Government, Abuse, Negative

  32 Copy quote

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

  James Madison

  Government, Taxation, Rewards

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

  13 Copy quote

• It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.

  James Madison

  Government, Evil, Perfect

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

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  37 Copy quote

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

  James Madison

  President, Responsible, Persons

  James Madison (1999). “Writings”

  14 Copy quote

• The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.

  James Madison

  Government, Nullification, Federalism

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.215

  82 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Madison

  Government, Agriculture, Giving

  6 Copy quote

• 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.

  James Madison

  Men, Able, Enlightened

  13 Copy quote

• The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature.

  James Madison

  Peace, War, Judging

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist: On the New Constitution, Written in 1788”, p.451

  56 Copy quote

• Can it be of less consequence that the meaning of a Constitution should be fixed and known, than a meaning of a law should be so?

  James Madison

  Law, Constitution, Should

  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.616

  23 Copy quote

• In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any.

  James Madison

  Law, Government, Federalism

  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.62

  98 Copy quote

• [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.

  James Madison

  Government, People, Safety

  James Madison (1999). “Writings”

  4 Copy quote

• If we resort for a criterion to the different principles on which different forms of government are established, we may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior.

  James Madison

  Government, Names, People

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2003). “The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus”, p.182, Cambridge University Press

  24 Copy quote

• Some degree of abuse is inseparable from the proper use of every thing; and in no instance is this more true than in that of the press. It has accordingly been decided, by the practice of the states, that it is better to leave a few of its noxious branches to their luxuriant growth, than, by pruning them away, to injure the vigor of those yielding the proper fruits.

  James Madison

  Practice, Abuse, Growth

  "Report on the Virginia Resolutions" (1799 - 1800)

  27 Copy quote

• 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

  10 Copy quote

• [I]t is more convenient to prevent the passage of a law, than to declare it void after it has passed.

  James Madison

  Law, Void, Legislature

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

  29 Copy quote

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