How we cite our quotes: (Essay.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished; as they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations. (10.1)
Here, Madison observes that leaders who take tyrannical power often do so by taking advantage of internal divisions in political life, and riding a majority opinion into prominence.
Quote #2
Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency. (10.4)
Freedom can be both a blessing and a curse for governments, because it includes the freedom to make poor decisions. Like as an adult, we have the ability to eat nothing but take-out pizza, but we probably shouldn't. Underneath the analogy, however, is the sense that free will is troublesome and needs to at least be managed by the government in a hands-off kind of way.
Quote #3
Second. It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. (51.6)
This is an interesting counterpoint to the notion that America is a government "of the people." While that idea lumps all citizens together into one group, Madison's saying that the public naturally divides itself, and we have to watch out for that.