Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.
James Madison

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.
James Madison

The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
James Madison

The capacity of the female mind for studies of the highest order cannot be doubted, having been sufficiently illustrated by its works of genius, of erudition, and of science.
James Madison

The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.
James Madison

The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy.
James Madison

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.
James Madison

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.
James Madison

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
James Madison

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
James Madison

The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.
James Madison

The internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself.
James Madison

The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad.
James Madison

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
James Madison

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.
James Madison

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.
James Madison

The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.
James Madison

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

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
James Madison

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
James Madison