John Adams Quotes - Page 7

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• The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.

  John Adams

  Law, Support, Second Amendment

  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.475

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• To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, counties or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.

  John Adams

  Men, Self, Hands

  "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government". Book by John Adams. Chapter 3: "Marchamont Nedham: Errors of Government and Rules of Policy", Sixth Rule, 1787.

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• I shall have the liberty to think for myself.

  John Adams

  Thinking, Liberty

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

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• It is folly to anticipate evils, and madness to create imaginary ones.

  John Adams

  Evil, Madness, Folly

  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.422

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• If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?

  John Adams

  Inspirational, Healthcare, Serving Others

  Letter to John Thaxter, September 29, 1778.

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• Elections, especially of representatives and counselors, should be annual, there not being in the whole circle of the sciences a maxim more infallible than this, "where annual elections end, there slavery begins." These great men ... should be (chosen) once a year-Like bubbles on the sea of matter bourne, they rise, they break, and to the sea return. This will teach them the great political virtues of humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.

  John Adams

  Humility, Men, Years

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• Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. What a Utopia! What a paradise this region would be.

  John Adams

  Religious, Book, Law

  John Adams (2004). “The Portable John Adams”, p.3, Penguin

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• Politics are a labyrinth without a clue.

  John Adams

  Political, Labyrinth, Politics

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• Human passions unbridled by morality and religion...would break the stronges cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.

  John Adams

  Passion, Whales, Morality

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• I read my Eyes out, and cant read half enough neither. The more one reads the more one sees We have to read.

  John Adams

  Inspirational, Motivational, Inspiring

  Letter to Abigail Adams, www.masshist.org. December 28, 1794.

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• 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.

  John Adams

  Government, People, Liberty

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

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• This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.

  John Adams

  Religious, Atheist, If There Is A God

  John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson (1988). “The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams”

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• This is my religion ... joy and exaltation in my own existence ... so go ahead and snarl ... bite ... howl, you Calvinistic divines and all you who say I am no Christian. I say you are not Christian.

  John Adams

  Christian, Joy, Religion

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• The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.

  John Adams

  Bible, God, Religious

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 10: Letters and State Papers 1811 - 1825”, p.38, Jazzybee Verlag

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• But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?

  John Adams

  Christian, Religious, Faith Religion

  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.235

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• As unbalanced parties of every description can never tolerate a free inquiry of any kind, when employed against themselves, the license, and even the most temperate freedom of the press, soon excite resentment and revenge.

  John Adams

  Revenge, Party, Inquiry

  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.273

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• Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart

  John Adams

  Grief, Heart, Sadness

  John Adams (2016). “John Adams: Writings from the New Nation, 1784-1826”, p.768, Library of America

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• Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.

  John Adams

  Education, Mind, Superstitions

  "John Adams: Quotes & Facts". Book by Blago Kirov, 2016.

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• 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

  Religious, Believe, May

  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.140, UPNE

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• Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration of virtue. These amiable passions, are the "latent spark" . . . If the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?

  John Adams

  Passion, Differences, People

  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.11

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• All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.

  John Adams

  Christian, Men, Dignity

  John Adams (1841). “Letters, Addressed to His Wife”, p.277

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• I would quarrel with both parties, and with every individual of each, before I would subjugate my understanding, or prostitute my tongue or pen to either.

  John Adams

  Party, Understanding, Tongue

  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.432

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• A lawyer once told a jury that the person his client stood accused of having killed was about to walk through the courtroom door. When the jurors looked startled, the lawyer asserted that if those jurors had wondered, even for one second that the victim might appear, that belief constituted enough reasonable doubt for them to find his client innocent.

  John Adams

  Doors, Law, Doubt

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• The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.

  John Adams

  Bible, God, Christian

  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.421

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• As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him.

  John Adams

  Bible, God, Religious

  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.169

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