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John Adams Quotes - Page 2

All Quotes 4th Of July Abuse Ambition Art Atheism Atheist Balance Bible Character Children Christianity Community Constitution Country Declaration Of Independence Democracy Design Desire Dignity Doubt Duty Earth Education Evil Exercise Family Fate Freedom Giving Glory God Grief Guilt Heart Heaven History Home Honesty Honor Human Nature Hypocrisy Ignorance Independence Innocence Inspiration Inspirational Jesus Joy Judging Justice Liberty Life Lying Mankind Money Morality Motivational Office Opportunity Passion Peace Philosophy Politics Power Prejudice Pride Property Reading Reflection Religion Reputation Revenge Revolution Safety School Second Amendment Slavery Society Son Soul Success Suffering Understanding Virtue Voting War Wisdom Writing

To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.

To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.

Volunteer, Virtue, Be Good

"What The Founding Fathers Said About Success Will Change Your Approach To Life", www.huffingtonpost.com. September 17, 2013.

Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.

Religious, Government, Religion

John Adams, Benjamin Rush (1892). “Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle... Series A-[B]”

The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

Freedom, Writing, Power

A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law (1765)

...Cities may be rebuilt, and a People reduced to Poverty, may acquire fresh Property: But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrendered their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.

Government, Cities, People

John Adams (2003). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.50, Penguin

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.

Religious, Revenge, Passion

John Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.229

The most sensible and jealous people are so little attentive to government that there are no instances of resistance until repeated, multiplied oppressions have placed it beyond a doubt that their rulers had formed settled plans to deprive them of their liberties; not to oppress an individual or a few, but to break down the fences of a free constitution, and deprive the people at large of all share in the government, and all the checks by which it is limited.

Jealous, Government, People

Our whole system of banks is a violation of every honest principle of banks. There is no honest bank but a bank of deposit. A bank that issues paper at interest is a pickpocket or a robber. But the delusion will have its course. ... An aristocracy is growing out of them that will be as fatal as the feudal barons if unchecked in time.

Issues, Principles, Aristocracy

John Adams, Benjamin Rush (1892). “Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle... Series A-[B]”

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence: nor is the law less stable than the fact.

Passion, Patriotic, Law

John Adams (1971). “The Works [of] John Adams, Second President of the United States: Life of John Adams”

The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.

Bible, God, Religious

As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims] ... it is declared ... that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever product an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.... The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.

Christian, Country, Religious

Ideology is the science of idiots.

Idiot, Ideology

The only thing most people do better than anyone else is read their own handwriting.

People, Handwriting

Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.

Party, Government, Unnecessary War

John Adams (2016). “John Adams: Writings from the New Nation, 1784-1826”, p.814, Library of America

When legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.

People, Undone, Legislature

Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

Freedom, Government, Forever

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.95, UPNE

We have no Constitution which functions in the absence of a moral people

People, Moral, Constitution

Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.

Education, Freedom, Knowledge

'A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law' (1765)

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.

Motivational, Horse, Exercise

"Presidential Proverbs: Quotes From U.S. Presidents Past, Present, and Future" by Kevin Daum, www.inc.com. November 09, 2016.

The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly [with your God]. This is enough.

Thinking, Mercy, Enough

"3 Biblical Tips to Stay Sane in Our Overloaded World" by Levi Ben-Shmuel, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 22, 2014.

It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.

Children, Ambition, Compassion

John Adams (2003). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.74, Penguin

If worthless men are sometimes at the head of affairs, it is, I believe, because worthless men are at the tail and the middle

Believe, Men, Tails

John Adams, Benjamin Rush (1892). “Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle... Series A-[B]”

As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it.

Government, People, Foundation

John Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.193

Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.

Libertarian Party, Liberty, Majority

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

Inspirational, Trust, Freedom

'Notes for an Oration at Braintree' (Spring 1772)

When public virtue is gone, when the national spirit is fled the republic is lost in essence, though it may still exist in form

Essence, Gone, Republic

John Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.603

Born: October 30, 1735 - July 4, 1826
Occupation: 2nd U.S. President

Quotes: 406

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