Federalist 51

angels quote

“…What is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”

everyone would just act right if we were angels, but we’re not, so we need a government to protect the liberty of the people

why men have to be governed

control quote

“in framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficult lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

interior structure quote

“the defect must be supplied, by so contriving the interior structure of the government as that its several constituent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places.”

This quote emphasizes the importance of designing a government with checks and balances, ensuring that different branches or parts work together to maintain order and prevent any one entity from gaining too much power.

will of its own quote

“it is evident that each department should have a will of its own; and consequently should be so constituted that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of the others.” - separate from each other, they can’t mess each other up, and they need to be equal between the three branches

in response to the legislative branch having too much power

“the remedy for this inconvenience is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit.” - that’s why we have a bicameral legislature