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James Madison Quotes
These James Madison Quotes are from his own letters and writings
during the years 1815 to 1822. This covers the time period of his second term as
president and the years immediately afterwards. In these James Madison
Quotes, he talks about such topics as his view that America will soon
eclipse Great Britain as the preeminent power on earth, that women are equally
as intelligent and capable as men and the fact that the majority can sometimes
tyrannize the minority. James Madison is known as the Father of the
US Constitution and became the 4th President of the United States. These
James Madison Quotes are listed chronologically with links to more
before and after this period at the bottom of the page.
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James Madison |
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James Madison Quotes
"No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the
Great Disposer of Events of the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United
States. His kind providence originally conducted them to one of the best portions
of the dwelling place allotted for the great family of the human race. He
protected and cherished them under all the difficulties and trials to which
they were exposed in their early days. Under His fostering care their habits,
their sentiments, and their pursuits prepared them for a transition in due
time to a state of independence and self-government. In the arduous struggle
by which it was attained they were distinguished by multiplied tokens of His
benign interposition. During the interval which succeeded He reared them into
the strength and endowed them with the resources which have enabled them to
assert their national rights, and to enhance their national character in
another arduous conflict, which is now so happily terminated by a peace and
reconciliation with those who have been our enemies. And to the same Divine
Author of Every Good and Perfect Gift we are indebted for all those privileges
and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this
favored land." - Thanksgiving Proclamation, March 4, 1815
"It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as
peace is better than war, war is better than tribute." - Letter to the Dey
of Algiers, August, 1816
"A silly reason from a wise man is never the true one." - Letter to Richard
Rush, June 27, 1817
"I have received your letter of the 6th, with the eloquent discourse delivered
at the consecration of the Jewish Synagogue. Having ever regarded the freedom
of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect, and the
secure enjoyment of it as the best human provision for bringing all either
into the same way of thinking, or into that mutual charity which is the only
substitute, I observe with pleasure the view you give of the spirit in which
your sect partake of the blessings offered by our Government and laws."
- Letter to Mordecai Noah, May 15, 1818
"The number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, & the devotion
of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the
Church from the State." - Letter to Robert Walsh, March 2, 1819
Read on for more
James Madison Quotes
 Montpelier -
Home of
James Madison
"I have always supposed that the meaning of a law, and, for a like reason, of
a constitution, so far as it depends on judicial interpretation, was to result
from a course of particular decisions, and not those from a previous and
abstract comment on the subject." - Letter to Judge Spencer Roan, September
2, 1819
"Parties, under some denominations or another, must always be expected in a
government as free as ours. When the individuals belonging to them are intermingled
in all parties of the whole country, they strengthen the union of the whole while
they divide every part. Should a state of parties arise founded on geographical
boundaries, and other physical and permanent distinctions which happen to coincide
with them, what is to control these great repulsive masses from awful shocks against
each other?" - Letter to Robert Walsh, November 27, 1819
"To provide employment for the poor, and support for the indigent, is among the
primary, and, at the same time, not least difficult cares of the public authority."
- Letter to Rev. F. C. Schaeffer, January 8, 1820
"Whilst it must be flattering to both nations (Great Britain and the U.S.) to contemplate
the progress of covering with their posterity and their language a greater space on
the earth than any other language, it is obvious that a few years will transfer the
ascendency to the Unites States." - Letter to William S. Cardell, May, 1820
"Among the features peculiar to the political system of the United States, is the
perfect equality of rights which it secures to every religious sect... Equal laws,
protecting equal rights, are found, as they ought to be presumed, the best guarantee
of loyalty and love of country; as well as best calculated to cherish that mutual
respect and good will among citizens of every religious denomination which are
necessary to social harmony, and most favorable to the advancement of truth."
- Letter to Dr. Jacob de La Motta, August, 1820
Need some more James Madison
Quotes? Read on!
"A Government like ours has so many safety-valves, giving vent to overheated
passions, that it carries within itself a relief against the infirmities from
which the best of human Institutions cannot be exempt." - Letter to the
Marquis de Lafayette, November 25, 1820
"No studies seem so well calculated to give a proper expansion to the mind as
Geography and History; and when not absorbing an undue portion of time, are
as beneficial and becoming to one sex as to the other." - Letter to B.
Chapman, January 25, 1821
"Geography is a preliminary, in all cases, to a pleasing and instructive course
of historical readings." - Letter to B. Chapman, January 25, 1821
"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." - Letter to Albert Picket, September, 1821
"As a guide in expounding and applying the provisions of the Constitution, the
debates and incidental decisions of the Convention can have no authoritative
character... The legitimate meanings of the Instrument must be derived from
the text itself; or if a key is to be sought elsewhere, it must be... in the
sense attached to it by the people in their respective State Conventions,
where it received all the authority which it possesses." - Letter to
Thomas Ritchie, September 15, 1821
"The experience of the United States is a happy disproof of the error so long
rooted in the unenlightened minds of well-meaning Christians, as well as in
the corrupt hearts of persecuting usurpers, that without legal incorporation
of religious and civil polity, neither could be supported. A mutual independence
is found most friendly to practical Religion, to social harmony, and to political
prosperity." - Letter to F. Schaeffer, December 3, 1821
Read on for more great
James Madison Quotes
"The departures from the true & fair construction of the instrument have always
given me pain, and always experienced my opposition when called for. The attempts
in the outset of the Govt. to defeat those safe, if not necessary, & those politic
if not obligatory amendments introduced in conformity to the known desires of the
Body of the people, & to the pledges of many, particularly myself when vindicating
& recommending the Constitution, was an occurrence not a little ominous. And it was
soon followed by indications of political tenets, and by rules, or rather the
abandonment of all rules of expounding it, wch. were capable of transforming it
into something very different from its legitimate character as the offspring of
the National Will. I wish I could say that constructive innovations had altogether
ceased." - Letter to John G. Jackson, December 27, 1821
"If... the powers of the General Government be carried to unconstitutional
lengths, it will be the result of a majority of the States and of the people,
actuated by some impetuous feeling, or some real or supposed interest, overruling
the minority, and not of successful attempts by the General Government to overpower
both." - Letter to John G. Jackson, December 27, 1821
"Whether the Constitution, as it has divided the powers of Government between
the States in their separate and in their united capacities, tends to an oppressive
aggrandizement of the General Government, or to an anarchical independence of the
State Governments, is a problem which time alone can absolutely determine."
- Letter to John G. Jackson, December 27, 1821
"Religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed
together." - Letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822
"We are teaching the world the great truth that Govts. do better without Kings &
Nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson that Religion
flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Govt." - Letter to
Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822
"I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done,
in shewing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less
they are mixed together." - Letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822
 If you enjoyed reading our James Madison Quotes,
you will also learn a lot more about James Madison at our
James Madison Facts page.
You can visit Montpelier, James Madison's home today. It has lots of memorabilia
and things to do. Visit the
Montpelier website here.
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Did you enjoy these James Madison Quotes? Check out these
inspirational quotations from some other Founding Fathers
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