james-madison Quotes About liberty Page 3

“The liberal appropriations made by the legislature of Kentucky for a general system of education cannot be too much applauded . . . . Learned institutions ought to be the favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty . . . . What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable than that of liberty and learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?”

People Mind Made Light Education Liberty Support Too Much Security Dangerous Objects Ought Institutions Mutual Legislature Kentucky Appropriation Encroachment Crafty

Author:James Madison

“...to support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the States and to the people as equally incorporated with and essential to the success of the general system;... to keep within the requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics-that without standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe.”

“As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other, and the former will be objects to which the latter attach themselves.”

Source: The Fœderalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favor of the New Constitution, as Agreed Upon by the Fœderal Convention, September 17, 1787. Reprinted from the Original Text. With an Historical Introduction and Notes

“In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by Power. In America ... charters of power [are] granted by liberty.”

Has Beens Government America Liberty Europe Granted Charter

Author:James Madison

“[A]ll power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty and the right of acquiring property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their government whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purpose of its institution.”

People Government Purpose Found Liberty Ought Benefits Safety Institutions Property Reform Enjoyment Nationalism Inadequate Adverse Obtaining

Book:Writings

Source: Writings

“Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty ought to have it ever before his eyes that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it.”

Men Heart May Mean Country Eye Able America Values Liberty Ought Unions Dues Every Man His Eyes Attachment Cherish

Book:The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers

Source: The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers

“It becomes all therefore who are friends of a Government based on free principles to reflect, that by denying the possibility of a system partly federal and partly consolidated, and who would convert ours into one either wholly federal or wholly consolidated, in neither of which forms have individual rights, public order, and external safety, been all duly maintained, they aim a deadly blow at the last hope of true liberty on the face of the Earth.”

Government Earth Lasts Faces Form Order Individual Liberty Principles Rights Possibility Aim Safety Blow Individual Rights Federalism

Book:1829-1836

Source: 1829-1836

“I am unable to conceive that the state legislatures which must feel so many motives to watch, and which possess so many means of counteracting the federal legislature, would fail either to detect or to defeat a conspiracy of the latter against the liberties of their common constituencies.”

Feels Mean States Common Liberty Watches Failing Defeat Motive Latter Conspiracy Legislature Federalism State Legislatures

Author: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.”

Source: James Madison's

“These examples, though as unfit for the imitation, as they are repugnant to the genius of America, are notwithstanding . . . very instructive proofs of the necessity of some institution that will blend stability with liberty.”

America Liberty Virtue Example Genius Institutions Proof Stability Imitation

Book:The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution

Source: The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution

“It is a melancholy reflection that liberty should be equally exposed to danger whether the government have too much power or too little power and that the line which divides these extremes should be so inaccurately defined by experience.”

Should Littles Government Lines Liberty Too Much Danger Reflection Extremes Defined Melancholy Divides Exposed Too Much Power

Book:Selected Writings of James Madison

Source: Selected Writings of James Madison

“The people of the U.S. owe their Independence & their liberty, to the wisdom of descrying in the minute tax of 3 pence on tea, the magnitude of the evil comprized in the precedent. Let them exert the same wisdom, in watching agst every evil lurking under plausible disguises, and growing up from small beginnings.”

People Evil Liberty Growing Up Growing Minutes Taxes Independence Tea Disguise Taxation Magnitude Precedent Plausible Lurking Small Beginnings

Author:James Madison

“In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example . . . of charters of power granted by liberty. This revolution in the practice of the world, may, with an honest praise, be pronounced the most triumphant epoch of its history, and the most consoling presage of its happiness.”

World May Has Beens America Freedom Liberty Practice Honest Example Revolution Europe Praise Granted Triumphant Epoch Charter Consoling

Book:James Madison's

Source: James Madison's

“No free country has ever been without Parties, which are a natural offspring of freedom.”

Country Natural Freedom Party Liberty Offspring Free Country

Book:The Papers of James Madison: Purchased by Order of the Congress, Being His Correspondence and Reports of Debates During the Congress of the Confederation, and His Reports of Debates in the Federal Convention; Now Published from the Original Manuscripts, Deposited in the Department of State

Source: The Papers of James Madison: Purchased by Order of the Congress, Being His Correspondence and Reports of Debates During the Congress of the Confederation, and His Reports of Debates in the Federal Convention; Now Published from the Original Manuscripts, Deposited in the Department of State

“In civilized communities, property as well as personal rights is an essential object of the laws, which encourage industry by securing the enjoyment of its fruits; that industry from which property results, and that enjoyment which consists not merely in its immediate use, but in its posthumous destination to objects of choice, and of kindred affection. In a just and free government, therefore, the rights both of property and of persons ought to be effectually guarded.”

“If justice, good faith, honor, gratitude and all the other qualities which enoble the character of a nation, and fulfill the ends of Government be the fruits of our establishments, the cause of liberty will acquire a dignity and lustre, which it has never yet enjoyed, and an example will be set, which can not but have the most favorable influence on the rights of Mankind.”

Source: The debates in the several state conventions on the adoption of the Federal Constitution, as recommended by the general convention at Philadelphia in 1787: Together with the Journal of the Federal convention, Luther Martin's letter, Yates's minutes, Congressional opinions, Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of '98-'99, and other illustrations of the Constitution

“Liberty is to faction, what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be a 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.”