MADISON, James

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The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.

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You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

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Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

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A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.

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If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.

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Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind, and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.

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The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

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The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.

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Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.

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The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.

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