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Liberty Quotes by James Madison

104 Liberty quotes by James Madison

All Liberty quotes James Madison’s page

James Madison writes that liberty is as essential as air for fire, and that a just government must guard it. He warns that any attempt to curb freedom endangers justice and the Constitution’s power‑liberty balance. He also links religious liberty to the right of each mind.

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Conscience is the most sacred of all property.

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Resistance to tyranny is service to God.

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

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Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.

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Every word decides a question between power and liberty.

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

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The temple through which alone lies the road to that of 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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“The advancement of science and the diffusion of information [is] the best aliment to true liberty.”

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

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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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I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate wherever the Government assumes a…

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It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be…

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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 diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution rages amoung some and to their eternal Infamy the Clergy can furnish their Quota of…

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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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May it not be asked of every intelligent friend to the liberties of his country, whether the power exercised in such an…

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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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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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The members of the legislative department . . . are numerous. They are distributed and dwell among the people at large. Their…

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

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The truth was that all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

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

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Our country, if it does justice to itself, will be the workshop of liberty to the civilized world.

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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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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…