James Madison Quotes
The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.
Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.
The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority's ability to harm a minority.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security.
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.
The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
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.
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.
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.
It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
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.
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.
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.
Liberty and order will never be perfectly safe until a trespass on the Constitution provisions for either, shall be felt with the same keenness that resents and invasion of the dearest rights.
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.
In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
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.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
The problem to be solved is, not what form of government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.
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 it's issuance.
To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.
Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.
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.
The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature.
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest while we are building ideal monuments of Renown and Bliss here we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.
Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.
I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.
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.
No error is more certain than the one proceeding from a hasty and superficial view of the subject.
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
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.
A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.