James Madison

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of Government. But what is Government itself, but …

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

[T]he great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means, and personal motives, to resist encroachments …

The danger of disturbing the public tranquillity by interesting too strongly the public passions, is a still more serious objection against a frequent reference of constitutional questions to the decision of the whole society.

the strength of opinion in each individual, and its practical influence on his conduct, depend much on the number which he supposes to have entertained the same opinion. The reason of man, like man himself, is timid and cautious when left …

the people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived

The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.

The accumulation of all powers, Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

would oppose, in any State, difficulties not to be despised; would form, in a large State, very serious impediments; and where the sentiments of several adjoining States happened to be in unison, would present obstructions which the …

that honorable determination which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.

A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project.

the smaller the number of individuals composing a majority, and the smaller the compass within which they are placed, the more easily will they concert and execute their plans of oppression. Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater …

Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.

The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a …

as they have been violent in their deaths

and have in general been as short in their lives

or the rights of property

have ever been found incompatible with personal security

such Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention

be felt by a majority of the whole

A common passion or interest will

can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction

To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed.