"Is there no virtue among us? If there……" — James Madison
"Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks-no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea, if there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them."
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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 Among Quotes
This quote is filed under Among Quotes,
one of 4,656 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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When I was a kid, among the other embarrassing things I would do, and there's a list of stupid things,…
— J. J. Abrams
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Music is the social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is.
— Malcolm Arnold
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These people were well dressed in skins, had some guns, but armed generally with bows and arrows and such other…
— William Henry Ashley
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Cameramen are among the most extraordinarily able and competent people I know. They have to have an insight into natural…
— David Attenborough
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I have a big following among the biogeeks of this world. Nobody ever puts them in books.
— Margaret Atwood
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Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I…
— Wystan Hugh Auden
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Murder is commoner among cooks than among members of any other profession.
— Wystan Hugh Auden
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The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light; although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.
— Saint Augustine
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The same thing which is now called Christian religion existed among the ancients. They have begun to call 'Christian' the…
— Saint Augustine
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Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom…
— Marcus Aurelius
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India is the meeting place of the religions and among these Hinduism alone is by itself a vast and complex…
— Sri Aurobindo
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I am inclined to attach some importance to the new system of manufacturing; and venture to throw it out with…
— Charles Babbage
See all 4,656 Among Quotes »