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" All that seems indispensible in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former. "

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" Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense. "

James Madison

Forward

Youth

Parents

" No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. "

" If we are to take for the criterion of truth the majority of suffrages, they ought to be gotten from those philosophic and patriotic citizens who cultivate their reason. "

" The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money. "

" 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. "

" What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? "

" 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. "

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

" What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed? "

" 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? "

James Madison

Liberty

Learning

" We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties. "

" Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages. "

James Madison

Journey

Long

" 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. "

" In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority. "

" The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the state governments, in times of peace and security. "

" There is no maxim, in my opinion, which is more liable to be misapplied, and which, therefore, more needs elucidation, than the current one, that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong. "

James Madison

Opinion

Political

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

" 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. "

" Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done. "

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

" Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors. "

" I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a subdivision of Property. "

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" Philosophy is common sense with big words. "

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

" I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution. "

" 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. "