John Adams Quotes - Page 3

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• People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity.

  John Adams

  Adversity, Fire, People

  22 Copy quote

• A government of laws, and not of men.

  John Adams

  Men, Law, Presidential

  "Novanglus Papers" no. 7 (1774). Almost certainly derived from James Harrington, but Adams's use of the phrase gave it wide circulation in the United States. He also used "government of laws, and not of men" in the Declaration of Rights drafted for the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780. See Cox 1; Gerald Ford 3; James Harrington 1

  94 Copy quote

• 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

  16 Copy quote

• 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.

  John Adams

  Issues, Principles, Aristocracy

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

  101 Copy quote

• Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.

  John Adams

  Moving, Soul, Independence

  John Adams, Daniel LEONARD, Jonathan SEWALL (1819). “Novanglus and Massachusettensis; or, political essays, published in ... 1774 and 1775, on the principal points of controversy, between Great Britain and her colonies; the former by John Adams ... the latter by Jonathan Sewall [or rather, Daniel Leonard] ... To which are added a number of letters lately written by President Adams to the Hon. William Tudor, etc”, p.25

  14 Copy quote

• Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.

  John Adams

  Suicide, Selfish, Passion

  Letter to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

  26 Copy quote

• 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

  26 Copy quote

• The true source of our sufferings has been our timidity.

  John Adams

  Suffering, Source, Dissertation

  John Adams (2001). “The Political Writings of John Adams”, p.15, Regnery Publishing

  14 Copy quote

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

  John Adams

  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

  48 Copy quote

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

  John Adams

  Religious, Government, Religion

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

  30 Copy quote
• 

  Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.

  John Adams

  Leadership, Character, Persistence

  "I’ll Vote for That" by Katharine Rose, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 22, 2015.

  50 Copy quote

• We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular governments. But there is great danger that those governments will not make us happy. God grant they may. But I fear that in every assembly, members will obtain an influence by noise, not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not learning. By contracted hearts, not large souls.

  John Adams

  Heart, Ignorance, Greatness

  John Adams, Robert Joseph Taylor (1979). “Papers of John Adams”

  29 Copy quote

• Before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it. And I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and Independence for ever!

  John Adams

  Believe, Heart, Blessing

  24 Copy quote

• [L]iberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.

  John Adams

  Freedom, Father, Blood

  Joseph E. SPRAGUE, John Adams (1826). “An Eulogy on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, etc”, p.36

  35 Copy quote

• Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers and destroyers press upon them so fast that there is no resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachments is to, grow every day more encroaching; like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour.

  John Adams

  Cancer, People, Giving

  John Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.43

  11 Copy quote

• That the desires of the majority of the people are often for injustice and inhumanity against the minority, is demonstrated by every page of the history of the world.

  John Adams

  People, Democracy, Desire

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila”, p.43, Jazzybee Verlag

  24 Copy quote

• The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.

  John Adams

  Education, School, Squares

  John Adams (1971). “The Works [of] John Adams, Second President of the United States: Official letters, messages, and public papers. Correspondence”

  80 Copy quote

• Negro slavery is an evil of colossal magnitude.

  John Adams

  Evil, Slavery, Magnitude

  John Adams (1997). “Rivoluzioni e Costituzioni”, p.37, Guida Editori

  7 Copy quote

• The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.

  John Adams

  Atheist, Believe, Fate

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 9: Letters and State Papers 1799 - 1811”, p.479, Jazzybee Verlag

  59 Copy quote

• Fear is the foundation of most governments.

  John Adams

  Fear, Patriotic, Government

  'Thoughts on Government' (1776)

  27 Copy quote

• The people, when they have been unchecked, have been as unjust, tyrannical, brutal, barbarous, and cruel, as any king or senate possessed of uncontrollable power. The majority has eternally, and without one exception, usurped over the rights of the minority.

  John Adams

  Kings, Rights, People

  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.10

  6 Copy quote

• But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations ... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.

  John Adams

  Religious, Real, War

  Letter to Hezekiah Niles, 13 Feb. 1818

  34 Copy quote

• Ambition is one of the ungovernable passions of the human heart. The love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable.

  John Adams

  Passion, Heart, Ambition

  11 Copy quote

• Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.

  John Adams

  Strength, Peace, Patriotic

  27 Copy quote

• The happiness of society is the end of government.

  John Adams

  Happiness, Government, Presidential

  'Thoughts on Government' (1776)

  15 Copy quote

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