Quotes By James Madison

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment.

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.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.

Philosophy is common sense with big words.

Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.

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

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.

Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.