I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse and in a republican government more than in any other.
James MadisonRead
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Knowledge empowers individuals to govern themselves and overcome ignorance.
This quote by James Madison emphasizes the importance of knowledge in achieving self-governance. It suggests that in order for a society to be truly autonomous and effective in governance, its members must educate themselves and harness the power that knowledge provides to combat ignorance and make informed decisions.
Themes
KnowledgeGovernanceIgnoranceEducationPower
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of education in a democratic society.
More from James Madison
All quotes βNo man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause; because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time.
James MadisonRead
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; but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have, more frequently than any other cause, produced despotism.
James MadisonRead
The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated.
James MadisonRead
The magnitude of this evil among us is so deeply felt, and so universally acknowledged, that no merit could be greater than that of devising a satisfactory remedy for it.
James MadisonRead
It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.
James MadisonRead
Similar quotes
We have an education and business culture that tends to reward quick factual answers over imaginative inquiry. Questioning isnβt encouraged - it is barely tolerated.
Warren BergerRead
Our students wanted to know everything: but only the newest theory seemed to them worth bothering with. Knowing nothing of the intellectual achievements of the past, they kept fresh and intact their enthusiasm for 'the latest thing'. Fashion dominated their interest: they valued ideas not for themselves but for the prestige that they could wring from them.
Claude Levi-StraussRead
While my parents never had the time or money to secure university education themselves, they were adamant that their children should. In comfort and in love, we were taught the joys of knowledge and of work well done. I only regret that neither my mother nor my father could live to see the day I would accept the Nobel Prize.
Sheldon Lee GlashowRead
What do we teach our children? . . . We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique . . . You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything.
Pablo CasalsRead
Sometimes, immersed in his books, there would come to him the awareness of all that he did not know, of all that he had not read; and the serenity for which he labored was shattered as he realized the little time he had in life to read so much, to learn what he had to know.
John Edward WilliamsRead
A diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome can be useful to help a person understand why they have had difficulties.
Simon Baron-CohenRead