"Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"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."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority's ability to harm a minority."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?"
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"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."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"The very definition of tyranny is when all powers are gathered under one place."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"No error is more certain than the one proceeding from a hasty and superficial view of the subject."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"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."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"Democracy was the right of the people to choose their own tyrant."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"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."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"Philosophy is common sense with big words."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
"To provide employment for the poor, and support for the indigent, is among the primary, and, at the same time, not least difficult cares of the public authority."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
“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.”
— James Madison (1751-1836)
“The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.”
— James Madison (1751-1836)
“The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.”
— James Madison (1751-1836)
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind, and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect."
— James Madison (1751-1836)
“No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
— James Madison (1751-1836)
“Learned institutions ought to be 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.”
— James Madison (1751-1836)
“Democracy is the most vile form of government.”
— James Madison (1751-1836)