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Quotes by James Madison
- 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.
- 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.
- If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
- 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.
- In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
- In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
- It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
- 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.
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