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Freedom Quotes by James Madison

105 Freedom quotes by James Madison

All Freedom quotes James Madison’s page

James Madison warns that liberty is as essential to a society as air is to fire. He argues that a just government exists to protect public liberty and that true justice follows when people are well‑instructed. He also stresses that religious liberty is an inalienable right and that losing liberty at home is often blamed on external threats.

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

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No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

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The ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone.

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Every word of [the Constitution] decides a question between power and liberty.

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“Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.”

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A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

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

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Every word decides a question between power and liberty.

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A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.

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Popular liberty might then have escaped the indelible reproach of decreeing to the same citizens, the hemlock on one day, and statues…

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The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged out of the weapons provided for defense against real, pretended, or…

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In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by Power. In America ... charters of power [are] granted by liberty.

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I have ever regarded the freedom of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect.

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“The advancement of science and the diffusion of information [is] the best aliment to true liberty.”

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No free country has ever been without Parties, which are a natural offspring of freedom.

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In suits at common law, trial by jury in civil cases is as essential to secure the liberty of the people as…

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Liberty and order will never be perfectly safe, until a trespass on the constitutional provisions for either, shall be felt with the…

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Democracies have been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general been as short in their lives…

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That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal…

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And may I not be allowed to ... read in the character of the American people, in their devotion to true liberty…

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...Freedom arises from the multiplicity of sects, which prevades America and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in…

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The genius of Republican liberty, seems to demand on one side, not only that all power should be derived from the people;…

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“The war has proved moreover that our free Government, like other free governments, though slow in its early movements, acquires in its…

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Happily for the states, they enjoy the utmost freedom of religion. This freedom arises from that multiplicity of sects which pervades America,…

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As the people of the United States enjoy the great merit of having established a system of Government on the basis of…

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In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. ...under the republican forms…

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In civilized communities, property as well as personal rights is an essential object of the laws, which encourage industry by securing the…

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I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those…

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Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have…

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“Foreigners have been encouraged to settle among you. Industry and virtue have been promoted by mutual emulation and mutual inspection; commerce and…

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The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly…

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In proportion to the value of this revolution; in proportion to the importance of instruments, every word of which decides a question…

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“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ…

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Liberty is to faction what air is to fire...

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

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As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.

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The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessings of liberty itself.

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People will continue to seek justice until it is found, or until liberty is lost in the pursuit.

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If we advert to the nature of republican government, we shall find that the censorial power is in the people over the…

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

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More by James Madison

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

Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate…

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments…

How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments…

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed,…

It is certain that every class is interested in [educational] establishments which give to the human mind its highest improvements, and to every Country…

Since it is impossible for the people spontaneously and universally, to move in concert towards their object; and it is therefore essential, that such…

The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government.

The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.

They can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass…

The effect of a representative democracy is to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body…

“... But besides the danger of a direct mixture of Religion & civil Government , there is an evil which ought to be guarded…

Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised;…

“It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government…

The better proof of reverence for that holy name would be not to profane it by making it a topic of legislative discussion…