Top 35 James Monroe Quotes (2024 Update)

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

— James Monroe

2. “The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals.”

— James Monroe

3. “We must support our rights or lose our character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties.”

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

5. “It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty.”

— James Monroe

6. “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.”

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

8. “It is better to spread trust all around than to hand out money!”

— James Monroe

9. “Peace is the best time for improvement and preparation of every kind; it is in peace that our commerce flourishes most, that taxes are most easily paid, and that the revenue is most productive.”

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

11. “While we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess, and to observe, the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to them whose minds have not yielded to the evidence which has convinced us.”

— James Monroe

12. “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.”

— James Monroe

13. “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.”

— James Monroe

14. “The movements of a great nation are connected in all their parts. If errors have been committed they ought to be corrected; if the policy is sound it ought to be supported.”

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

18. “A little flattery will support a man through great fatigue.”

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

20. “I regret that I should leave this world without again beholding him.”

— James Monroe

21. “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.”

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

23. “The earth was given to mankind to support the greatest number of which it is capable, and no tribe or people have a right to withhold from the wants of others more than is necessary for their own support and comfort.”

— James Monroe

24. “The liberty, prosperity, and the happiness of our country will always be the object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme Author of All Good.”

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

29. “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.”

— James Monroe

30. “To impose taxes when the public exigencies require them is an obligation of the most sacred character, especially with a free people.”

— James Monroe

31. “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.”

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

33. “In 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.”

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

35. “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.”

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe

37. “The great increase of our population throughout the Union will alone produce an important effect, and in no quarter will it be so sensibly felt as in those in contemplation.”

— James Monroe

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

— James Monroe