"Attempts to enforce by legal sanctions, acts obnoxious……" — James Madison
"Attempts to enforce by legal sanctions, acts obnoxious to so great a proportion of Citizens, tend to enervate the laws in general, and to slacken the bands of Society. If it be difficult to execute any law which is not generally deemed necessary or salutary, what must be the case, where it is deemed invalid and dangerous? And what may be the effect of so striking an example of impotency in the Government, on its general authority?"
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James Madison
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461 Quotes by James Madison
James Madison has 461 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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The Alien bill proposed in the Senate is a monster that must forever disgrace its parents.
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It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism,…
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The characters and events depicted in the damn bible are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is…
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Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish…
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If there be a principle that ought not to be questioned within the United States, it is that every man…
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It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be…
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Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
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Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.
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A standing army is one of the greatest mischief that can possibly happen.
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War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement
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The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in…
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The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested…
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More Acts Quotes
This quote is filed under Acts Quotes,
one of 1,679 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire; all…
— Hannah Arendt
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Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate…
— Aristotle
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The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
— Marcus Aurelius
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Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.
— Teresa of Avila
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What matters is to live in the present, live now, for every moment is now. It is your thoughts and…
— Sai Baba
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We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs.…
— Philip James Bailey
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A speculator is a man who observes the future, and acts before it occurs.
— Bernard Baruch
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Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a…
— Joseph Addison
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The real 'action' in the liturgy in which we are all supposed to participate is the action of God himself.…
— Pope Benedict XVI
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Every individual acts and suffers in accordance with his peculiar teleology, which has all the inevitability of fate, so long…
— Alfred Adler
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He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
— William Blake
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Most recently, terrorist forces have captured Israeli soldiers and fired rockets into Israeli cities - both unprovoked. These acts of…
— John Boehner
See all 1,679 Acts Quotes »