James Madison Quotes on People (15 Quotes)

'Every answer he President John Adams gives to his addressers unmasks more and more his principles and views. His language to the young men at Philadelphia is the most abominable and degrading that could fall from the lips of the first magistrate of an independent people, and particularly from a Revolutionary patriot.'

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.

The Constitution of the United States was created by the people of the United States composing the respective states, who alone had the right .

The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

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.

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.

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.

In no instance have... the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

The American people are too well schooled in the duty and practice of submitting to the will of the majority to permit any serious uneasiness on that account

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

The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.