The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
James Madison

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.
James Madison

Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.
James Madison

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.
James Madison

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

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.
James Madison

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
James Madison

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
James Madison

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.
James Madison

In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
James Madison

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
James Madison

Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.
James Madison

Thomas Jefferson quotes:

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them

Adolf Hitler quotes:

In relation to the political decontamination of our public life, the government will embark upon a systematic campaign to restore the nation’s moral and material health. The whole educational system, theater, film, literature, the press and broadcasting – all these will be used as a means to this end.

Thomas Jefferson quotes:

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

Thomas Jefferson quotes:

The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.

Thomas Jefferson quotes:

The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution

Lysander Spooner, Prohibition quotes:

Vices are not crimes.

Cornelius Tacitus, Prohibition quotes:

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.

Henry David Thoreau, Prohibition quotes:

Trade and commerce, if they were not made of Indian rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way.

Mark Thornton, Prohibition quotes:

The new puritans have been highly successful. All of the preconditions for new prohibitions on alcohol and tobacco are in place. ... Indeed, the future agenda of the federal government has already been established to outlaw alcohol and tobacco in the near future. ... If current trends persist, America will be moving toward stricter prohibitions, greater restrictions, and more centralized control over consumption. This represents an erosion of liberty at its most fundamental level.

Thomas Jefferson quotes:

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.

Thomas Jefferson quotes:

The happiness and prosperity of our citizens is the only legitimate object of government.