dots-menu
×

Home  »  Respectfully Quoted  »  James Madison (1751–1836)

Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.

 
NUMBER: 969
AUTHOR: James Madison (1751–1836)
QUOTATION: A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
ATTRIBUTION: JAMES MADISON, letter to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822.—The Writings of James Madison, ed. Gaillard Hunt, vol. 9, p. 103 (1910).

These words, using the older spelling “Governours,” are inscribed to the left of the main entrance, Library of Congress James Madison Memorial Building.
SUBJECTS: Knowledge