Top 73 Quotes by James Madison

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

Philosophy is common sense with big words.

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.

The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a subdivision of Property.

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.

Any reading not of a vicious species must be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes.

The internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself.

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

Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.