Canadian federalism is more than a form of government. It's also a system of values that allows different people in diverse communities to live and work together in harmony for the good of all. — Jean Chretien
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. — James Madison
The proposed Constitution is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal constitution; but a composition of both. — James Madison
Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority. — Lord Acton
Among the popular and representative systems of government I do not approve of the federal system: it is too perfect; and it requires virtues and political talents much superior to our own. — Simon Bolivar
Federalism isn’t about states’ rights. It’s about dividing power to better protect individual liberty. — Elizabeth Price Foley
The power of the people pervading the proposed system, together with the strong confederation of the states, will form an adequate security against every danger that has been apprehended. — John Dickinson
It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government. — Alexander Hamilton
Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. — James Madison
The Constitution was framed upon the theory that the peoples of the several states must sink or swim together, and that in the long run prosperity and salvation are in union and not division. — Benjamin Cardozo
The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded. — Franklin Pierce
The Federal Reserve System is not Federal; it has no reserves; and it is not a system at all, but rather, a criminal syndicate. — Eustace Mullins
Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master! — Thomas Jefferson
How could a state be governed, or protected in its foreign relations if every individual remained free to obey or not to obey the law according to his private opinion. — Thomas Hobbes
The man who puts all the guns and all the decision-making power into the hands of the central government and then says, ‘Limit yourself’; it is he who is truly the impractical utopian. — Murray Rothbard
Short Federalist Quotes
Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry. — Unknown Author
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed. — Alexander Hamilton
Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. — James Madison
A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. — James Madison
Conscience is the most sacred of all property. — James Madison
What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? — James Madison
Liberty is to faction what air is to fire. — James Madison
Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. — James Madison
[V]igor of government is essential to the security of liberty. — Alexander Hamilton
The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man. — James Madison
Federalist Papers Quotes
If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one. — James Madison
But the mild voice of reason, pleading the cause of an enlarged and permanent interest, is but too often drowned, before public bodies as well as individuals, by the clamors of an impatient avidity for immediate and immoderate gain. — James Madison
Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants. — Alexander Hamilton
A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest while we are building ideal monuments of Renown and Bliss here we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven. — James Madison
Democracies have been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death. — James Madison
In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects. — Alexander Hamilton
Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred. — Alexander Hamilton
[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 encroachment of the others. — James Madison
A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice, a bad government. — Alexander Hamilton
[T]here is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution. — Alexander Hamilton
Can the real Constitution be restored? Probably not. Too many Americans depend on government money under programs the Constitution doesn't authorize, and money talks with an eloquence Shakespeare could only envy. Ignorant people don't understand The Federalist Papers, but they understand government checks with their names on them. — Joseph Sobran
An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others. — Thomas Jefferson
The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex. — James Madison
Conscience is the most sacred of all property; other property depending in part on positive law, the exercise of that, being a natural and unalienable right. — James Madison
A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions. — James Madison
It is of great importance in a republic, not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers; but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. — James Madison
The Founders understood that democracy was important, but if you didn't filter it through a republican system you'd be just as likely to end up with a tyranny of the majority as you would with a healthy society. Don't worry, I won't quote the Federalist Papers, but trust me, it's in there. — Jonah Goldberg
It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage...Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe. — James Madison
Who does not see that . . . the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever? — James Madison
World federalists hold before us the vision of a unified mankind living in peace under a just world order... The heart of their program-a world under law- is realistic and attainable. — U Thant
The goal of the World Federalists is peace through unity of government. We must support their vision of oneness in diversity, for it is the salvation of mankind. — Jean Stapleton
Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? — James Madison
The purpose of the Federalist Society was to bring together young people who had this skepticism about what they were being taught and to let them know that there were others who shared this skepticism. — Antonin Scalia
Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. — James Madison
The most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property. — James Madison
The best critical consideration of the inherent weakness of a federation of states in which the law of the federation has to be enforced on the states who are its members is contained in the Federalist Papers. — Kenneth Waltz
The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. — James Madison
I do not support Putin against Europe. This is a caricature. I support a federalist Ukraine. The EU poured fuel on the fire by proposing an economic partnership to a country known to look half to the East and half to the West. — Marine Le Pen
I'm a federalist. I believe in the Italy of municipalities, of the Renaissance, not in Mussolini's centralization. — Matteo Salvini
Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation.... Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. — James Madison
The invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the Constituents. — James Madison
The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic. — Joseph Story
The vigour of government is essential to the security of liberty. . . . a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. — Alexander Hamilton
The first phase of American political history was characterized by the conflict between the Federalists and the Republicans, and it resulted in the complete triumph of the latter. — Herbert Croly
In Conclusion
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