James Madison Quotes

“Madison was also developing another idea: that the absence of clashing ideas and competing interests leads to overreaching and corruption.”
― Lynne Cheney, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect,” Madison told Bradford, writing with the authority of a man who knew firsthand the price of being bound to a received viewpoint—and the liberation of breaking free.”
― Lynne Cheney, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

“The first was a Maryland delegate, the wealthy Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, a jovial man who owed his unusual name to a Jenifer family tradition of naming all males Daniel. “Of St. Thomas” had been added to distinguish him from his brother.”
― Lynne Cheney, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

“In the ensuing debate Madison declared that “opinions are not the objects of legislation,” and he worried aloud, “How far will this go? It may extend to the liberty of speech and of the press.” Finally,”
― Lynne Cheney, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

“Gallatin had warned Jefferson that " government prohibitions do always more mischief than had been calculated; and it is not without much hesitation that a statesman should hazard to regulate the concerns of individuals as if he could do it better than themselves.”
― Lynne Cheney, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

“common defense, security of liberty, and general welfare.’”7”
― Lynne Cheney, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

“He had already decided to study law, not because he intended to be a lawyer, but because, he told Bradford, “the principles and modes of government are too important to be disregarded by an inquisitive mind”
― Lynne Cheney, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

“The best way to avoid danger is to be in a capacity to withstand it.”45”
― Lynne Cheney, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

“is common to youth and inexperience in like cases—but . . . unattended with that gracefulness and ease which sometimes makes even the impertinence of youth and inexperience agreeable or at least not offensive.” Rodney was a thoroughgoing eccentric who claimed to have personal visits from archangels, but odd though he was, his comment about the thirty-year-old Madison being fresh from college is revealing.32 A miniature painted by Charles Willson Peale about this time shows how Rodney might have made this mistake. The overall impression is of”
― Lynne Cheney, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

“Robertson began one lecture with the definition of a sign: “a thing that gives notice of something different from itself.” He next gave examples of natural signs, such as smiling, which indicates joy, and blushing, which speaks of shame. Then, after observing that such signs are universal, Robertson noted this exception: “Politicians and other cunning men of business, [who] by great and refined dissimulation, have in great measure confounded and stifled the natural indications of their inmost thoughts.”28”
― Lynne Cheney, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered