Quotes · Skopia

55 quotes

SortEditorial Year Length

Person·James Madison✕clear

Essay · Political literature

To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of...faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed.

Federalist 10 · 1787

★ 1.2

Essay · Political literature

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results.

Federalist 10 · 1787

★ 1.2

Essay · Political literature

Each department should have a will of its own; and consequently should be so constituted that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of the others.

Federalist 51 · 1788

★ 1.2

Speech · Political speech

To render the war short and its success sure, animated and systematic exertions alone are necessary, and the success of our arms now may long preserve our country from the necessity of another resort to them.

Second Inaugural Address of James Madison · 1813

★ 1.2

Speech · Political speech

Our country abounds in the necessaries, the arts, and the comforts of life. A general prosperity is visible in the public countenance.

Second Inaugural Address of James Madison · 1813

★ 1.3

Essay · Political literature

A pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction.

1787

★ 2.0

Essay · Political literature

The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.

Federalist 10 · 1787

★ 2.0

Essay · Political literature

A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government.

Federalist 10 · 1787

★ 2.0

Essay · Political literature

In a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person; in a republic, they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents. A democracy, consequently, will be confined to a small spot. A republic may be extended over a large region.

Federalist 14 · 1787

★ 2.0

Essay · Political literature

The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of country, over which the latter may be extended.

Federalist 10 · 1787

★ 2.0

Essay · Political literature

It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part.

1788

★ 2.0

Essay · Political literature

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.

Federalist 62 · 1788

★ 2.0

Essay · Political literature

Different interests necessarily exist in different classes of citizens. If a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure.

Federalist 51 · 1788

★ 2.0

I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse, and in a Republican Government a greater than in any other.

1790

★ 2.0

Essay · Newspaper

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.

1792

★ 2.0

The advancement & diffusion of Knowledge, which is the only Guardian of true liberty.

1825

★ 2.0

Essay · Political literature

The most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property.

Federalist 10 · 1787

★ 2.1

Essay · Political literature

In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.

Federalist 51 · 1788

★ 2.1

Political literature

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall...abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

1789

★ 2.1

Speech · Political speech

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

1788

★ 3.6

Essay · Newspaper · Political literature

In every political society, parties are unavoidable. A difference of interests, real or supposed is the most natural and fruitful source of them...the great art of politicians lies in making them checks and balances to each other.

Parties · 1792

★ 3.6

Essay · Political literature

By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.

1787

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

Is it not the glory of the people of America, that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience?

Federalist 14 · 1787

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts.

Federalist 10 · 1787

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States.

Federalist 10 · 1787

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

Federalist 10 · 1787

★ 3.7

Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation.

1788

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

The defect must be supplied, by so contriving the interior structure of the government as that its several constituent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places.

Federalist 51 · 1788

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one which should not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.

Federalist 48 · 1788

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.

Federalist 45 · 1788

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

Federalist 51 · 1788

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

It is ESSENTIAL to such a government that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for their government the honorable title of republic.

Federalist 39 · 1788

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

We may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good behavior.

Federalist 39 · 1788

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

A good government implies two things: first, fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained.

Federalist 62 · 1788

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature.

Federalist 51 · 1788

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

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.

Federalist 45 · 1788

★ 3.7

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.

1822

★ 3.7

Essay · Political literature

Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.

Federalist 20 · 1787

★ 3.8

Essay · Political literature

It will not be denied, that power is of an encroaching nature, and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.

Federalist 48 · 1788

★ 3.8

Political literature

Nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

Bill of Rights · 1789

★ 3.8

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