James Monroe Quotes

James Monroe delivers stately reflections on nation, politics and war that feel like a thoughtful call to honor.

42 quotes

1. National honor is the national property of the highest value.

2. The mention of Greece fills the mind with the most exalted sentiments and arouses in our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is capable.

3. The American continents ... are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.

4. In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do.

5. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.

6. A little flattery will support a man through great fatigue.

7. If America wants concessions, she must fight for them. We must purchase our power with our blood.

8. If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy.

9. In this great nation there is but one order, that of the people, whose power, by a peculiarly happy improvement of the representative principle, is transferred from them, without impairing in the slightest degree their sovereignty, to bodies of their own creation, and to persons elected by themselves, in the full extent necessary for the purposes of free, enlightened, and efficient government.

10. It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin.

11. Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever was success so complete.

12. Our country may be likened to a new house. We lack many things, but we possess the most precious of all -- liberty!

13. Preparation for war is a constant stimulus to suspicion and ill will.

14. The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil.

15. The principles and passions of men are always the same and lead to the same result, varying only according to the circumstances in which they are placed.

16. The crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I trust never will stain, our national character. You are considered by them as not only having rendered important service in our own revolution, but as being, on a more extended scale, the friend of human rights, and able advocate of public liberty. To the welfare of Thomas Paine, the Americas are not, nor can they be, indifferent.

17. In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, not does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defence.

18. 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. And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land.

19. By the last returns to the Department of War the militia force of the several States may be estimated at 800,000 men - infantry, artillery, and cavalry.

20. Our relations with the other powers of Europe have experienced no essential change since the last session.

21. A free, virtuous, and enlightened people must know full well the great principles and causes upon which their happiness depends.

22. There is a price tag on human liberty. That price is the willingness to assume the responsibilities of being free men. Payment of this price is a personal matter with each of us.

23. By these purchases the Indian title, with moderate reservations, has been extinguished to the whole of the land within the limits of the State of Ohio, and to a part of that in the Michigan Territory and of the State of Indiana.

24. I enter on the trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor.

25. How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.

26. It is better to spread trust all around than to hand out money!

27. The civil war which has so long prevailed between Spain and the Provinces in South America still continues, without any prospect of its speedy termination.

28. [In a republic,] it is not the people themselves who make the decisions, but the people they themselves choose to stand in their places.

29. I have great satisfaction in stating that our relations with France, Russia, and other powers continue on the most friendly basis.

30. A king without power is an absurdity.

31. Let us by wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties.

32. In a representative republic, the education of our children must be of the utmost importance!

33. There is every reason to believe that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of which human institutions are capable.

34. If it was wise, manly, and patriotic for us to establish a free government, it is equally wise to attend to the necessary means of its preservation.

35. History has shown that at least one-half of every century is consumed in war.

36. The payments which have been made into the Treasury show the very productive state of the public revenue.

37. It was by one Union that we achieved our independence and liberties, and by it alone can they be maintained.

38. From several of the Indian tribes inhabiting the country bordering on Lake Erie purchases have been made of lands on conditions very favorable to the United States, and, as it is presumed, not less so to the tribes themselves.

39. At no period of our political existence had we so much cause to felicitate ourselves at the prosperous and happy condition of our country.

40. Of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press; of the trial by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms… If these rights are well defined, and secured against encroachment, it is impossible that government should ever degenerate into tyranny.

41. The emigrants although of different parties and different religious sects all flew from persecution in pursuit of liberty.

42. National honor is national property of the highest value.