Quotes from James Madison

I hope this will find you...enjoying the commencement of a new year with every prospect that can make it a happy one.

To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.

On the distinctive principles of the Government ... of the U. States, the best guides are to be found in ... The Declaration of Independence, as the fundamental Act of Union of these States.

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

The power of taxing people and their property is essential to the very existence of government.

The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.

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

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

The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.

It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage...Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.

The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate.

The establishment of the chaplainship to Congress is a palpable violation of ... constitutional principles.

The settled opinion here is that religion is essentially distinct from Civil Govt. and exempt from its cognizance; that a connection between them is injurious to both.

if the people are to be our governors, they must arm themselves with knowledge.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.

At cheaper and nearer seats of Learning parents with slender incomes may place their sons in a course of education putting them on a level with the sons of the Richest.

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.

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

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

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.

The safety and happiness of society are the objects at which all political institutions aim, and to which all such institutions must be sacrificed.

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.

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 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.