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 men were angels, no government would be necessary.
Federalist No. 51 (6 February 1788)In context
- Government
The Constitution requires an adoption in toto, and for ever.
Letter to Alexander Hamilton (1788)
- America
- Government
I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.
Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution (6 June 1788)
- Freedom
- Power
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
“Political Observations” (1795-04-20)
- Freedom
- War & Peace
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.
“Political Observations” (1795-04-20)
- Liberty
- War & Peace
The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, & most prone to it.
Letter to Thomas Jefferson (2 April 1798); published in The Writings of James Madison (1906) edited by Gaillard Hunt, Vol. 6, pp. 312-14
Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.
Letter to Thomas Jefferson (17 October 1788), in The Writings of James Madison, Vol. 5 (1904)
- Government
- Power
But what is Government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
Federalist No. 51 (6 February 1788)In context
- Government
Religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.
Letter to Edward Livingston (10 July 1822)
- Government
- Religion
The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.
Federalist No. 48 (1 February 1788)
- Government
- Power
By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.
Federalist No. 10 (November 22, 1787)In context
- Politics
Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.
Federalist No. 10 (November 22, 1787)In context
- Liberty
- Politics
The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.
Federalist No. 10 (November 22, 1787)In context
- Politics
No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.
Federalist No. 10 (November 22, 1787)In context
- Justice
Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.
Federalist No. 10 (November 22, 1787)In context
- Leadership
- Politics

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