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John Adams Quotes

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One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress.

One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress.

John Adams
Men, Law, Two

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

John Adams
Bible, God, Religious
John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “Works: with a life of the author”, p.229

There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.

John Adams
Country, Two, Debt

Always stand on principle even if you stand alone.

John Adams
Principles, Politics, Stand Alone
"Who is Bernie Sanders?" by Tom Pappalardo, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 28, 2015.

There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution.

John Adams
Party, Humble, Government
John Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.511

Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.

John Adams
Men, Class, Safety
John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). “The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections”, p.97, Hackett Publishing

But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

John Adams
Government, Presidential, Forever
John Adams (2012). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.76, Simon and Schuster

Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.

John Adams
Peace, War, Thinking
John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson (1959). “The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. 1812-1826”

The destiny of America is to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to all men everywhere.

John Adams
Bible, Jesus, Destiny

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

John Adams
Suicide, Freedom, Suicidal
Letter from John Adams to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

John Adams
Liberty, Libertarian, Pro Gun

When economic power became concentrated in a few hands, then political power flowed to those possessors and away from the citizens, ultimately resulting in an oligarchy or tyranny.

John Adams
Hands, Political, Citizens

The right of a nation to kill a tyrant, in cases of necessity, can no more be doubted, than to hang a robber, or kill a flea. But killing one tyrant only makes way for worse, unless the people have sense, spirit and honesty enough to establish and support a constitution guarded at all points against the tyranny of the one, the few, and the many.

John Adams
Honesty, Tyrants, People
John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila”, p.110, Jazzybee Verlag

We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!

John Adams
Bible, God, Religious

A militia law, requiring all men, or with very few exceptions besides cases of conscience, to be provided with arms and ammunition... is always a wise institution, and, in the present circumstances of our country, indispensable.

John Adams
Wise, Country, Men
John Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.199

Power must never be trusted without a check.

John Adams
Power, Checks, Trusted
John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson (1988). “The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams”

Every problem is an opportunity in disguise.

John Adams
Opportunity, Problem, Disguise

We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our Liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good.

John Adams
Party, Independent, Government
John Adams' Inaugural Address, avalon.law.yale.edu. March 4, 1797.

[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few.

John Adams
Eye, Men, Intellectual

Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.

John Adams
Children, Freedom, Patriotic
John Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.197

Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.

John Adams
Names, Hypocrisy, Suffering
"A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law" by John Adams, teachingamericanhistory.org. 1765.

The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.

John Adams
Strength, Peace, Tyrants
John Adams (1794). “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America: Against the Attack of M. Turgot in His Letter to Dr. Price, Dated the Twenty-second Day of March, 1778”, p.385

The date will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

John Adams
Sports, 4th Of July, Believe
Letter to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776

Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.

John Adams
Freedom, Patriotic, History
Abigail Adams, John Adams, L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Mary-Jo Kline (1975). “The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784”, p.173, UPNE

My God! This is a revolution! We have to offend someone!

John Adams
Religion, Revolution