James Madison was the 4th President of the United States. He was the Father of the Constitution
and the principal author of the Bill of Rights. Here are some of his best quotes:
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
“It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.”
“Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various
rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses.
“This being the end of government, that alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own.”
“In the former sense, a man’s land, or merchandise, or money is called his property. In the
latter sense, a man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.”
“He has a property of peculiar value in his religious opinions, and in the profession and practice dictated by them.”
“He has a property very dear to him in the safety and liberty of his person. He has an equal property
in the free use of his faculties and free choice of the objects on which to employ them.”
“In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property
in his rights.”
“Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.”
“A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes
oppress one species of property and reward another species.”
“The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”