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Temporary deviations from fundamental principles are always more or less dangerous. When the first pretext fails, those who become interested in prolonging the evil will rarely be at a loss for other pretexts.

James Madison

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James Madison
Age: 85 †
Born: 1751
Born: March 16
Died: 1836
Died: June 28
4Th U.S. President
Diplomat
Lawyer
Philosopher
Politician
Slaveholder
Statesperson
Writer
Port Conway
Virginia
James Madison
Jr.
President Madison
J. Madison
Madison
First
Loss
Pretext
Always
Principles
Fails
Dangerous
Temporary
Liberty
Rarely
Less
Fundamental
Pretexts
Evil
Fundamentals
Deviations
Become
Failing
Prolonging
Firsts
Interested
Deviation

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What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? 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.
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[Christianity] existed and flourishes, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them.
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The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venal love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.
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The regulation of commerce, it is true, is a new power but that seems to be an addition which few oppose and from which no apprehensions are entertained.
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A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.
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Government destitute of energy, will ever produce anarchy.
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All that seems indispensible in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former.
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No free country has ever been without Parties, which are a natural offspring of freedom.
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Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm, to extinguish Religious discord, by proscribing all difference in religious opinion. Time has at length revealed the true remedy. Every relaxation of narrow and rigorous policy, wherever it has been tried, has been found to assuage the disease.
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A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.
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Commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic.
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No distinction seems to be more obvious than that between spiritual and temporal matters. Yet whenever they have been made objects of Legislation, they have clashed and contended with each other, till one or the other has gained the supremacy.
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The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
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It may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more constant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves.
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Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance.
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The ultimate authority resides in the people, and that if the federal government got too powerful and overstepped its authority, then the people would develop plans of resistance and resort to arms.
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That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.
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The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.
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The better proof of reverence for that holy name would be not to profane it by making it a topic of legislative discussion.
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