James Madison Quotes

The State is the altar of political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for the purpose of human sacrifice.

I've been reading this little book. It's called the Russian constitution. And it says that the only source of power in Russia is the people. So I don't want to hear those who say we're appealing to the authorities. Who's the power here?

He who is the most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power is as eager after for the prerogatives of government.

Power is more satisfying to some than wealth.... Power is, indeed, a heady thing—whether it be a King, a President, a Legislature, a Court, or an Administration agency that is concerned.

The great question which, in all ages, has disturbed mankind, and brought on them the greatest part of those mischiefs which have ruined cities, depopulated countries, and disordered the peace of the world, has been, not whether there be power in the world, nor whence it came, but who should have it.

That distinct sovereignties could exist under one government, emanating from the same people, was a phenomenon in the political world, which the wisest statesmen in Europe could not comprehend; and of its practicability many in our own country entertained the most serious doubts. Thus far the friends of liberty have had great cause of triumph in the success of the principles upon which our government rests. But all must admit that the purity and permanency of this system depend on its faithful administration. The states and the federal government have their respective orbits, within which each must revolve. If either cross the sphere of the other, the harmony of the system is destroyed, and its strength is impaired. It would be as gross usurpation on the part of the federal government, to interfere with state rights, by an exercise of powers not delegated; as it would be for a state to interpose its authority against a law of the union.

Government is the assumption of authority over a given area and all within it, exercised generally for the double purpose of more complete oppression of its subjects and extension of its boundaries.

You can have a strong government and a weak people, or strong people and weak government, but you cannot have both.

I went to Boston fully expecting to be arrested - arrested by a polizia created by a government that my ancestors rebelled to establish.

I'd rather rule the world now than be prime minister.

Washington is built on power.

Too much of power has got concentrated in the hands of the Central and state governments.

There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters

Either you will control your government, or government will control you.

Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Government, in it's last analysis, is organized force.

The power under the Constitution will always be in the people.

Sovereignty is not given, it is taken.

Laws always lose in energy what the government gains in extent.

In free governments the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns.

Stripped of all its covering, the naked question is, whether ours is a federal or consolidated government; a constitutional or absolute one; a government resting solidly on the basis of the sovereignty of the States, or on the unrestrained will of a majority; a form of government, as in all other unlimited ones, in which injustice, violence, and force must ultimately prevail.

You can’t propose that something be a universal space and at the same time keep control of it.

If people cannot limit government they will not for long be free.

Everybody wants power and control in their life.

The fundamental force behind the Second Amendment is to empower the people and give them the greatest measure of authority over the tyranny of runaway government.