John Adams Quotes - Page 12

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• There is no good government but what is republican. That the only valuable part of the British constitution is so; for the true idea of a republic is "an empire of laws, and not of men." That, as a republic is the best of governments, so that particular arrangement of the powers of society, or in other words, that form of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the law, is the best of republics.

  John Adams

  Men, Law, Ideas

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• God is an essence that we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.

  John Adams

  Essence, World, Awful

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• My best wishes, in the joys, and festivities, and the solemn services of that day on which will be completed the fiftieth year from its birth, the independence of the United States. A remarkable epoch in the annals of the human race, destined in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be shaped by the human mind.

  John Adams

  Memorable, Race, Years

  "A Selection of Eulogies Pronounced in the Several States". Book by D.F. Robinson and Company, 1826.

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• I Pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on this house, and on ALL that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof!

  John Adams

  Wise, Honesty, Blessing

  Letter to Abigail Adams, 2 Nov. 1800

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• This oration will be read five hundred years hence with as much rapture as it was heard. It ought to be read at the end of every century, and indeed at the end of every year, forever and ever.

  John Adams

  Men, Years, Forever

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• The deliberate union of so great and various a people in such a place, is without all partiality or prejudice, if not the greatest exertion of human understanding, the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen.

  John Adams

  People, Effort, Understanding

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila”, p.185, Jazzybee Verlag

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• They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts.

  John Adams

  Nuts, Worry, Political

  John Adams (2012). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.212, Simon and Schuster

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• Historically, usury was defined as any interest whatever on an unproductive loan.Our whole banking system I have ever abhorred, I continue to abhor, and I shall die abhorring.

  John Adams

  Usury, Banking, Loan

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• I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.

  John Adams

  Writing, Political, Politics

  John Adams (2003). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.244, Penguin

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• I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation.

  John Adams

  Men, Israel, Presidential

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• The numbers of men in all ages have preferred ease, slumber, and good cheer to liberty, when they have been in competition.

  John Adams

  Cheer, Men, Numbers

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

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• A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.

  John Adams

  Ambition, Men, Presidential

  Diary and Autobiography, 14 Nov. 1760

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• Did you ever see a portrait of a great man without perceiving strong traits of pain and anxiety?

  John Adams

  Strong, Pain, Men

  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.217

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• It may be the will of Heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting, and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have the good effect at least. It will inspire us with many virtues, which we have not, and correct many errors, follies and vices. But I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe.

  John Adams

  Believe, America, Errors

  Letter to Abigail Adams, teachingamericanhistory.org. July 03, 1776.

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• Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.

  John Adams

  Eye, Simple, Imagination

  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.79, UPNE

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• A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.

  John Adams

  Patriotic, Heart, Men

  John Adams (1805). “Discourses on Davila: A series of papers, on political history. Written in the year 1790, and then published in the Gazette of the United States”, p.26

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• There is something very unnatural and odious in a government a thousand leagues off. A whole government of our own choice, managed by persons whom we love, revere, and can confide in, has charms in it for which men will fight.

  John Adams

  Fighting, Men, League

  John Adams (2012). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.142, Simon and Schuster

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• The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation: The doctrine of a supreme, intelligent sovereign of the universe, I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.

  John Adams

  Believe, Men, Intelligent

  John Adams (1965). “The John Adams papers”

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• All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.

  John Adams

  Nature, Money, Ignorance

  John Adams' Letter to Thomas Jefferson, founders.archives.gov. August 23, 1787.

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• A question arises whether all the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, shall be left in this body? I think a people cannot be long free, nor ever happy, whose government is in one Assembly.

  John Adams

  Thinking, Government, Long

  John Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.195

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• If we take a survey of the greatest actions...in the world...we shall find the authors of them all to have been persons whose Brains had been shaken out of their natural position.

  John Adams

  Inspirational, Brain, World

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• When philosophic reason is clear and certain by intuition or necessary induction, no subsequent revelation supported by prophecies or miracles can supersede it.

  John Adams

  Miracle, Intuition, Atheism

  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.85

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• 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.

  John Adams

  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.

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• The rights of Englishmen are derived from God, not from king or Parliament, and would be secured by the study of history, law, and tradition.

  John Adams

  Kings, Law, Rights

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• Riches attract attention, consideration, and congratulations of mankind.

  John Adams

  Money, Congratulations, Riches

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