James Madison

I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse, and in a Republican Government a greater curse than…

— James Madison

[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

— James Madison

The problem to be solved is, not what form of government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.

— James Madison

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

— James Madison

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

— James Madison

War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.

— James Madison

The proposed Constitution is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal constitution; but a composition of both.

— James Madison

The citizens of the United States have peculiar motives to support the energy of their constitutional charters.

— James Madison

I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation.…

— James Madison

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the…

— James Madison

The American people are too well schooled in the duty and practice of submitting to the will of the majority to permit…

— James Madison

Bills of attainder, ex-post facto laws and laws impairing the obligation of contracts are contrary to the first principles of the social…

— James Madison

When men exercise their reason coolly and freely, on a variety of distinct questions, they inevitably fall into different opinions, on some…

— James Madison

It is to the press mankind are indebted for having dispelled the clouds which so long encompassed religion, for disclosing her genuine…

— James Madison

[In the case of] dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states, who are parties thereto, have…

— James Madison

There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermingle with religion. Its least interference with it would be…

— James Madison

“It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. . . . The freemen of America did not…

— James Madison

It may not be improper, however, to remark two consequences, evidently flowing from an extension of the federal power to every subject…

— James Madison

“It is *essential* to such a government, that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable…

— James Madison

The real wonder is that so many difficulties should have been surmounted [in the federal convention], and surmounted with a unanimity almost…

— James Madison

Place three individuals in a situation wherein the interest of each depends on the voice of the others, and give to two…

— James Madison

[The human mind] finds more facility in assenting to the self-existence of an invisible cause possessing infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, than…

— James Madison

[I]n the next place, to show that unless these departments be so far connected and blended as to give to each a…

— James Madison

... the State Legislatures will jealously and closely watch the operations of this Government, and be able to resist with more effect…

— James Madison

A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.

— James Madison

No error is more certain than the one proceeding from a hasty and superficial view of the subject.

— James Madison

Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.

— James Madison

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

— James Madison

The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority's ability to harm a minority.

— James Madison

No power over the freedom of religion [is] delegated to the United States by the Constitution.

— James Madison

The growing wealth aquired by them corporations never fails to be a source of abuses.

— James Madison

Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.

— James Madison

Congress shall never disarm any citizen unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.

— James Madison

Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.

— James Madison

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

— James Madison

Our Constitution represents the work of the finger of Almighty God.

— James Madison

If slavery, as a national evil, is to be abolished, and it be just that it be done at the national expense,…

— James Madison

This policy of supplying by opposite and rival interests, the defect of better motives, might be traced through the whole system of…

— James Madison

The passions, therefore, not the reason, of the public would sit in judgment. But it is the reason, alone, of the public,…

— James Madison

By rendering the labor of one, the property of the other, they cherish pride, luxury, and vanity on one side; on the…

— James Madison