All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

— James Madison

A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.

— James Madison

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

— James Madison

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

— James Madison

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.

— James Madison

A pure democracy is a society consisting of a few citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.

— James Madison

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

— James Madison

A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.

— James Madison

As the cool and deliberate sense of the community ought, in all governments, and actually will, in all free governments, ultimately prevail over the views of its rulers; so there are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterward be the most ready to lament and condemn.

— James Madison

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

— James Madison