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John Adams Quotes - Page 14

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We are in the the very midst of a revolution, the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.

We are in the the very midst of a revolution, the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.

John Adams
Revolution, Unexpected, Midst
John Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.223

Mr. Adams, describing a conversation with Jonathan Sewall in 1774, says: "I answered that the die was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon. Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination."

John Adams
Country, Determination, Swim

Let the pulpit resound with the doctrines and sentiments of religious liberty... Let us hear the dignity of his [man's] nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God... Let it be known, that British liberties are not the grants of princes or parliaments.

John Adams
Religious, Men, Liberty
"The Works of John Adams, Volume 3: Autobiography, Diary, Notes of a Debate in the Senate, Essays". Book edited by Charles Francis Adams, 1851.

If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, and that a free country!

John Adams
Country, Sacrifice, Offering

Genius is sorrow's child.

John Adams
Children, Sorrow, Genius
John Adams, Benjamin Waterhouse (1927). “Statesman and Friend: Correspondence of John Adams with Benjamin Waterhouse, 1784-1822”

I do not like the late resurrection of the Jesuits. . . . If ever any congregation of men could merit eternal perdition on earth, and in hell, according to these historians, though, like Pascal, true Catholics, it is this company of Loyolas.

John Adams
Men, Catholic, Earth
John Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.219

Liberty, according to my metaphysics, is an intellectual quality, an attribute that belongs not to fate nor chance. Neither possesses it, neither is capable of it. There is nothing moral or immoral in the idea of it. The definition of it is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power; it can elect between objects, indifferent in point of morality, neither morally good nor morally evil.

John Adams
Fate, America, Self
John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). “The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections”, p.196, Hackett Publishing

If "Thou shalt not covet," and "Thou shalt not steal," were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free.

John Adams
Heaven, Politics, Stealing
John Adams (2001). “The Political Writings of John Adams”, p.230, Regnery Publishing

I had heard my father say that he never knew a piece of land run away or break.

John Adams
Running, Father, Land
John Adams, Lyman Henry Butterfield (1961). “Diary and Autobiography: Diary, 1782-1804. Autobiography to October 1776”

Negro Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude. I am therefore utterly averse to the admission of Slavery into the Missouri Territory, and heartily wish that every Constitutional measure may be adopted for the preservation of it.

John Adams
Evil, Slavery, Territory
Letter to William Tudor, Jr., founders.archives.gov. November 20, 1819.

Let us hear the dangers of thralldom to our consciences from ignorance, extreme poverty, and dependence; in short, from civil and political slavery. Let us see delineated before us the true map of man. Let us hear the dignity of his nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God-that consenting to slavery is a sacrilegious breach of trust, as offensive in the sight of God as it is derogatory from our own honor or interest or happiness-and that God Almighty has promulgated from heaven liberty, peace, and goodwill to man!

John Adams
Peace, Ignorance, Men

The History of our Revolution will be one continued Lye from one End to the other. The Essence of the whole will be that Dr Franklins electrical Rod, Smote the Earth and out Spring General Washington. That Franklin electrified him with his Rod - and thence forward these two conducted all the Policy Negotiations Legislation and War.

John Adams
Lying, War, Two
John Adams' Letter to Benjamin Rush, founders.archives.gov. April 4, 1790.

Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.

John Adams
Education, Wise, Learning
John Adams (1841). “Letters of John Adams: Addressed to His Wife”, p.284

The arts and sciences, in general, during the three or four last centuries, have had a regular course of progressive improvement. The inventions in mechanic arts, the discoveries in natural philosophy, navigation and commerce, and the advancement of civilization and humanity, have occasioned changes in the condition of the world and the human character which would have astonished the most refined nations of antiquity. A continuation of similar exertions is everyday rendering Europe more and more like one community, or single family.

John Adams
Art, Philosophy, Character
John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 4: Novanglus, Thoughts on Government, Defence of the Constitution I”, p.210, Jazzybee Verlag

When I was young, and addicted to reading, I had heard about dancing on the points of metaphysical needles; but, by mixing in the world, I found the points of political needles finer and sharper than the metaphysical ones.

John Adams
Dance, Reading, Dancing
John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.315

Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.

John Adams
Liberty, Revolution, Unexpected
John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “Works: with a life of the author”, p.391

I request that they may be considered in confidence, until the members of Congress are fully possessed of their contents, and shall have had opportunity to deliberate on the consequences of their publication; after which time, I submit them to your wisdom.

John Adams
Wisdom, Opportunity, May
John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.158

When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.

John Adams
Freedom, Laughter, Writing
Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 15 July 1817

When you see a good move, sit on your hands and find a better one.

John Adams
Moving, Hands, Chess

[T]he liberty, the unalienable, indefeasible rights of men, the honor and dignity of human nature, the grandeur and glory of the public, and the universal happiness of individuals, were never so skillfully and successfully consulted as in that most excellent monument of human art, the common law of England.

John Adams
Art, Freedom, Men
John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.440

The universal object and idol of men of letters is reputation.

John Adams
Writing, Men, Idols
John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.240

One sailor will do us more good than two soldiers.

John Adams
Two, Soldier, Sailor
John Adams (1809). “Correspondence of the Late President Adams”, p.173

The idea of infidelity [a disbelief in the inspiration of the Scriptures or the divine origin of Christianity] cannot be treated with too much resentment or too much horror. The man who can think of it with patience is a traitor in his heart and ought to be execrated [denounced] as one who adds the deepest hypocrisy to the blackest treason.

John Adams
Inspiration, Heart, Men

The human understanding is a revelation from its maker, which can never be disputed or doubted. There can be no scepticism, Pyrrhonism, or incredulity or infidelity here. No prophecies, no miracles are necessary to prove this celestical communication. This revelation has made it certain that two and one make three, and that one is not three nor can three be one. We can never be so certain of any prophecy, or the fulfilment of any prophecy, or of any miracle, or the design of any miracle, as we are from the revelation of nature, that is, nature's God, that two and two are equal to four.

John Adams
Communication, Two, Miracle
John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.66

By the former of these (canon law), the most refined, sublime, extensive, and astonishing constitution of policy that ever was conceived by the mind of man was framed by the Romish clergy for the aggrandizement of their own order.

John Adams
Men, Order, Law
John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). “The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections”, p.5, Hackett Publishing