Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson
“In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, Resolution 9 (Elliot's Debates, vol. 4 (1836), via Wikisource)
The best-known sentence of the Kentucky text, concluding its argument for strictly limited government.
Citation: "In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." — James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, Resolution 9 (Elliot's Debates, vol. 4 (1836), via Wikisource). (id virginia-and-kentucky-resolutions-q6)
Portrait: Rembrandt Peale - Thomas Jefferson, Rembrandt Peale, Public domain.
