The quotations of

James Madison

President of the United States from 1809 to 1817

1751–1836

31 quotes, most often on Government, Politics and War & Peace. Part of the U.S. Presidents and Founding Fathers collections.

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
- America
- War & Peace
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.
Federalist No. 51 (1788)In contextOften credited to Alexander Hamilton
- Government
A popular Government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.
Letter to W.T. Barry (4 August 1822), in The Writings of James Madison (1910) edited by Gaillard Hunt, Vol. 9, p. 103
- Government
- Knowledge
The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
- Politics
I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.
“On Parties” (23 January 1792), Papers of James Madison Vol. XIV, pp. 197-8
- Economics
You give me a credit to which I have no claim in calling me ‘the writer of the Constitution of the United States.’ This was not, like the fabled Goddess of Wisdom, the offspring of a single brain. It ought to be regarded as the work of many heads and many hands.
- America
Justice is the end of Government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been, and ever will be pursued, until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.
Federalist No. 51 (6 February 1788)In context
- Government
- Justice
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
Speech in the Virginia Constitutional Convention, 2 December 1829, The Writings of James Madison: 1819-1836 (1910), ed. Galliard Hunt, p. 361
- Government
- Power
Slavery is, as you justly complain, a sad blot on our free country.
Letter to Lafayette (1821)
- Slavery
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Federalist No. 51 (6 February 1788)In context
- Government
Where slavery exists, the republican theory becomes still more fallacious.
Vices of the Political System of the United States (April 1787), Papers 9:350-51
- Slavery
Twenty years will produce all the mischief that can be apprehended from the liberty to import slaves. So long a term will be more dishonorable to the National character than to say nothing about it in the Constitution.
Madison’s notes (25 August 1787)
- Slavery
Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear.
Last words, to his niece, as told in Paul Jennings, A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison (1865), p. 20
- Life & Death
The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.
“Outline” notes (September 1829), in The Writings of James Madison (1910) by Gaillard Hunt, Vol. 9, p. 357
- America
- Liberty
No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.
Federalist No. 62
- Government

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