James Madison Jr. was an American statesman, diplomat, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. This James Madison quotes on democracy, liberty, the government will motivate you.
Best James Madison Quotes
- “Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.” ~ James Madison
- “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
- “If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within.” ~ James Madison
- “The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority’s ability to harm a minority.” ~ James Madison
- “Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.” ~ James Madison
- “Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them.” ~ James Madison
- “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
- “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” ~ James Madison
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“If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?” ~ James Madison
- “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
- “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
- “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” ~ James Madison
- “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” ~ James Madison
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“A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.” ~ James Madison
- “Our Constitution represents the work of the finger of Almighty God.” ~ James Madison
- “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” ~ James Madison
- “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
- “That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.” ~ James Madison
- “Good conscience is the most valuable asset of all!” ~ James Madison
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“Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” ~ James Madison
- “History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance.” ~ James Madison
- “It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.” ~ James Madison
- “The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.” ~ James Madison
- “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
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“The very definition of tyranny is when all powers are gathered under one place.” ~ James Madison
- “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
- “A well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.” ~ James Madison
- “Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.” ~ James Madison
- “If there be a principle that ought not to be questioned within the United States, it is that every man has a right to abolish an old government and establish a new one. This principle is not only recorded in every public archive, written in every American heart, and sealed with the blood of American martyrs, but is the only lawful tenure by which the United States hold their existence as a nation.” ~ James Madison
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“The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.” ~ James Madison
- “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
- “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.” ~ James Madison, James Madison quotes on government
- “The problem to be solved is, not what form of government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.” ~ James Madison
- “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” ~ James Madison
- “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.” ~ James Madison
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“Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.” ~ James Madison
- “The people can never willfully betray their own interests: But they may possibly be betrayed by the representatives of the people; and the danger will be evidently greater where the whole legislative trust is lodged in the hands of one body of men, than where the concurrence of separate and dissimilar bodies is required in every public act.” ~ James Madison
- “The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned.” ~ James Madison
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“Our country, if it does justice to itself, will be the workshop of liberty to the civilized world.” ~ James Madison
- “The truth was that all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.” ~ James Madison
- “A pure Democracy, by which I mean a Society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the Government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of Government itself, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is, that such Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives, as they have been violent in their deaths.” ~ James Madison, James Madison quotes on democracy
- “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
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“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” ~ James Madison
- “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. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. … The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives and liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.” ~ James Madison
- “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical idea.” ~ James Madison
