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John Adams Quotes about Liberty

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Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

Liberty, Libertarian, Pro Gun

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

Libertarian Party, Liberty, Majority

Have you ever found in history, one single example of a nation, thoroughly corrupted, that was afterwards restored to virtue? And without virtue there can be no political liberty.

Political, Liberty, Example

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.386

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.

Real, Liberty, Mankind

I shall have liberty to think for myself without molesting others or being molested myself.

Thinking, Liberty, Positive Atheism

John Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.35

Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws.

Law, Liberty, Individual

John Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.225

We may... affirm that the balance of power in a society accompanies the balance of property in land. The only possible way, then, of preserving the balance of power on the side of liberty and public virtue is to make the acquisition of land easy to every member of society; to make a division of the land into small quantities, so that the multitude may be possessed of landed estates.

Land, Balance, Liberty

John Adams, Frederick K. Sanders (1975). “John Adams Speaking: Pound's Sources for the Adams Cantos”

Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.

Liberty, Patriot, Property

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.280

I shall have the liberty to think for myself.

Thinking, Liberty

"John Adams". Book by David McCullough, www.nytimes.com. May 22, 2001.

The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now. They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.

Government, People, Liberty

Letter to Zabdiel Adams, "Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 4", memory.loc.gov. June 21, 1776.

I would define liberty to be a power to do as we would be done by. The definition of liberty to be the power of doing whatever the law permits, meaning the civil laws, does not seem satisfactory.

Law, Liberty, Doe

Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.

Government, Liberty, Foundation

Massachusetts Historical Society, John Adams, Samuel Adams, James Warren (1917). “Warren-Adams Letters: Being Chiefly a Correspondence Among John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Warren ... 1743-1814”

Let them revere nothing but religion, morality and liberty.

Liberty, Morality, Founding Fathers Religion

John Adams (2012). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.132, Simon and Schuster

You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.

Life And Love, Poetry, Liberty

Letter to John Quincy Adams, 14 May 1781

[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.

Liberty, Foundation, Principles

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.401

We must not then depend alone upon the love of liberty in the soul of man for its preservation.

Men, Soul, Liberty

John Adams (2016). “John Adams: Writings from the New Nation, 1784-1826”, p.320, Library of America

Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. But if unlimited or unbalanced power of disposing property, be put into the hands of those who have no property, France will find, as we have found, the lamb committed to the custody of the world. In such a case, all the pathetic exhortations and addresses of the national assembly to the people, to respect property, will be regarded no more than the warbles of the songsters of the forest.

Hands, People, Liberty

"Discourses on Davila : A Series of Papers on Political History first published in the Gazette of the United States". Book by John Adams, No. 13, 1805.

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty. Perhaps, at first, prejudice, habit, shame or fear, principle or religion, would restrain the poor from attacking the rich, and the idle from usurping on the industrious; but the time would not be long before courage and enterprise would come, and pretexts be invented by degrees, to countenance the majority in dividing all the property among them, or at least, in sharing it equally with its present possessors.

Real, Long, Liberty

John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila”, p.11, Jazzybee Verlag

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.

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.

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.

Liberty, Revolution, Unexpected

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

The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians, the sachems, the nabobs, call them by what names you please, sigh and groan and fret, and sometimes stamp and foam and curse, but all in vain. The decree is gone forth, and it cannot be recalled, that a more equal liberty than has prevailed in other parts of the earth must be established in America.

Names, America, Liberty

John Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.387

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

Quotes: 406

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