Quotes by James Monroe

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

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

“It is the knowledge that all men have weaknesses and that many have vices that makes government necessary.”

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

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

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

“I do therefore recommend the third Thursday in August next, as a convenient day to be set apart for the devout purposes of rendering to the Sovereign of the Universe and the Benefactor of mankind, ...”

“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 ...”

“National honor is the national property of the highest value.”

“Preservation, improvement, and civilization of the native inhabitants. The Hunter state can exist only in the vast uncultivated desert. It yields to the more dense compact form of and greater force...”

“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 susceptible.”

“Our relation to Europe, is pretty much the same, as it was in the commencement of the French Revolution. Can we, in any form, take a bolder attitude in regard to it, in favor of liberty, than we th...”

“What was the origin of our slave population? The evil commenced when we were in our Colonial state, but acts were passed by our Colonial Legislature, prohibiting the importation, of more slaves, in...”

“The American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power.”

“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.”

“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...”

“The President while not believing it would come to war, was prepared to defend South American Liberty.”

“A plot by slaves to march on Richmond, Virginia, in 1800, the so-called Gabriel Uprising named after its lead slave, was described by then-governor James Monroe as strange and blamed on the French ...”

“In 1824, James Monroe stated, There is no object which as a people we can desire which we do not possess or which is not within our reach. Here we can see the tension identified by Kotef as well as...”

“The British Government under Canning offered to co-operate with the United States in stopping the extension of this threatening principle of intervention to the New World. Britain announced that sh...”