James Madison Quotes

“If enlightened public opinion was a bulwark of freedom, then leaders must labor ceaselessly to enlighten or manipulate it.”
― Richard Brookhiser, James Madison

“Dead Hamilton had explained it in The Federalist: “Energy in the executive is the leading character in the definition of good government.” To executives the weight of unsatisfactory associates is not a trade-off but a dead loss, to be jettisoned as soon as possible.”
― Richard Brookhiser, James Madison

“The Alien Act allowed the president to deport any noncitizen foreigner he thought “dangerous to the peace and safety” of the country, without hearing or trial. The Sedition Act made it a federal crime to say or publish anything “false, scandalous and malicious” about the federal government, or Congress.”
― Richard Brookhiser, James Madison

“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home” occurs under the threat of “danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”
― Richard Brookhiser, James Madison

“that in republics “the censorial power is in the people over the government and not in the government over the people.” The ideas of the Democratic Societies, he concluded, “will stand or fall by the public opinion....”
― Richard Brookhiser, James Madison