Quotes by James Madison
The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority's ability to harm a minority.
I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.
Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.
The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned.
The ultimate authority resides in the people, and that if the federal government got too powerful and overstepped its authority, then the people would develop plans of resistance and resort to arms.
The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.
We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.
Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them.
If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?
Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.
Resistance to tyranny is service to God.
Conscience is the most sacred of all property.
Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.
The very definition of tyranny is when all powers are gathered under one place.
If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within.
A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.
A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
We are free today substantially, but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few. A Republic cannot stand upon bayonets, and when the day comes when the wealth of the nation will be in the hands of a few, then we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nations to the changed conditions.