Top 73 Quotes by James Madison

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

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?

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

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.

If we are to take for the criterion of truth the majority of suffrages, they ought to be gotten from those philosophic and patriotic citizens who cultivate their reason.

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.