James Madison Quotes - Page 8

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• The appointment of senators by the state legislatures . . . is recommended by the double advantage of favoring a select appointment, and of giving to the state governments such an agency in the formation of the federal government, as must secure the authority of the former.

  James Madison

  Government, Agency, Giving

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

  10 Copy quote

• The management of foreign relations appears to be the most susceptible of abuse of all the trusts committed to a Government, because they can be concealed or disclosed, or disclosed in such parts and at such times as will best suit particular views; and because the body of the people are less capable of judging, and are more under the influence of prejudices, on that branch of their affairs, than of any other. 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

  Real, Home, Loss

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.49, University of Virginia Press

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• The civil Government, though bereft of every thing like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability, and performs its functions with complete success; whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, and the devotion of the people, have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the State.

  James Madison

  Government, Religion, Atheism

  "Letters and Other Writings of James Madison".

  21 Copy quote

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

  James Madison

  Government, Atheism, Liberty

  James Madison (1867). “1816-1828”, p.276

  18 Copy quote

• Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.

  James Madison

  Real, Lying, Government Lies

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

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• I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse and in a republican government more than in any other.

  James Madison

  Government, Principles, Debt

  Letter to Henry Lee, 13 Apr. 1790

  8 Copy quote

• You give me a credit to which I have no claim in calling me "the writer of the Constitution of the United States." This was not, like the fabled Goddess of Wisdom, the offspring of a single brain. It ought to be regarded as the work of many heads and many hands.

  James Madison

  Hands, Giving, Brain

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.341

  20 Copy quote

• The great desideratum in Government is, so to modify the sovereignty as that it may be sufficiently neutral between different parts of the Society to controul one part from invading the rights of another, and at the same time sufficiently controuled itself, from setting up an interest adverse to that of the entire Society.

  James Madison

  Rights, Government, Different

  James Madison (1867). “1769-1793”, p.353

  16 Copy quote

• Conscience is the most sacred of all property; other property depending in part on positive law, the exercise of that being a natural and unalienable right. To guard a man's house as his castle, to pay public and enforce private debts with the most exact faith, can give no title to invade a man's conscience, which is more sacred than his castle, or to withhold from it that debt of protection for which the public faith is pledged by the very nature and original conditions of the social pact.

  James Madison

  Exercise, Men, Law

  James Madison (1865). “Letters and other writings of James Madison”, p.479

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• Procrastination in the beginning and precipitation towards the conclusion is the characteristic of such bodies.

  James Madison

  Procrastination, Body, Characteristics

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• The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.

  James Madison

  Rights, Government, Liberty

  James Madison (1999). “Writings”

  15 Copy quote

• [The Republican Party] consists of those who, believing in the doctrine that mankind are capable of governing themselves and hating hereditary power as an insult to the reason and an outrage to the rights of men, are naturally offended at every public measure that does not appeal to the understanding and to the general interest of the community.

  James Madison

  Hate, Party, Believe

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.482

  7 Copy quote

• By rendering the labor of one, the property of the other, they cherish pride, luxury, and vanity on one side; on the other, vice and servility, or hatred and revolt.

  James Madison

  Pride, Vanity, Two Sides

  29 Copy quote

• Every word of [the Constitution] decides a question between power and liberty.

  James Madison

  Liberty

  "The forging of American federalism: selected writings of James Madison".

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• Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?

  James Madison

  Christian, Atheist, Religion

  "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments" (1785)

  12 Copy quote

• What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?

  James Madison

  Hazards, Branches, May

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.288

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• It may be concluded that a pure democracy . . . can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction.

  James Madison

  Democracies Have, Democracy, May

  Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison (2010). “The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States”, p.58, Modern Library

  10 Copy quote

• It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.

  James Madison

  War, America, Principles

  James Madison (1867). “1816-1828”, p.17

  9 Copy quote

• Precedents once established are so much positive power.

  James Madison

  Precedent

  James Madison (1867). “1829-1836”, p.511

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• Testimony of all ages forces us to admit that war is among the most dangerous enemies to liberty, and that the executive is the branch most favored by it of all the branches of Power.

  James Madison

  War, Enemy, Age

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.108, University of Virginia Press

  7 Copy quote

• Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction.

  James Madison

  Government, Unions, Violence

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2009). “The Federalist”, p.52, Harvard University Press

  36 Copy quote

• A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.

  James Madison

  Party, Passion, Practice

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.44

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• The people shall not be restrained from peacefully assembling and consulting for their common good, nor from applying to the legislature by petitions, or remonstrances for redress of their grievances.

  James Madison

  People, Freedom Of Speech, Common

  5 Copy quote

• America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.

  James Madison

  Art, Agriculture, America

  38 Copy quote

• I regret, as much as any member, the unavoidable weight and duration of the burdens to be imposed; having never been a proselyte to the doctrine, that public debts are public benefits. I consider them, on the contrary, as evils which ought to be removed as fast as honor and justice will permit.

  James Madison

  Regret, Government, Evil

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

  6 Copy quote

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