John Adams Quotes - Page 8

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• No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.

  John Adams

  Men, Office, Presidential

  Letter to Josiah Quincy, 14 Feb. 1825

  10 Copy quote

• Admit that the press transferred the pontificate of Rome to Henry VIII-Admit that the press demolished in some sort the feudal system, and set the serfs and villains free; admit that the press demolished the monasteries, nunneries, and religious houses; into whose hands did all these alienated baronies, monasteries, and religious houses and lands fall? Into the hands of the democracy? Into the hands of serfs and villains? Serfs and villains were the only real democracy in those time. No. They fell into the hands of other aristocrats. . . .

  John Adams

  Religious, Time, Real

  9 Copy quote

• When we say God is a spirit, we know what we mean, as well as we do when we say that the pyramids of Egypt are matter. Let us be content, therefore, to believe him to be a spirit, that is, an essence that we know nothing of, in which originally and necessarily reside all energy, all power, all capacity, all activity, all wisdom, all goodness.

  John Adams

  Believe, Mean, Egypt

  John Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.388

  10 Copy quote

• The balance of power in a society accompanies the balance of property in land.

  John Adams

  Land, Balance, Accompany

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “Works: with a life of the author”, p.376

  6 Copy quote

• Government has no Right to hurt a hair of the head of an Atheist, for his Opinions. Let him have a care of his Practices.

  John Adams

  Hurt, Atheist, Hair

  John Adams' Letter to John Quincy Adams, founders.archives.gov. June 16, 1816.

  15 Copy quote

• I have long been settled in my own opinion that neither Philosophy, nor Religion, nor Morality, nor Wisdom, nor Interest, will ever govern nations or Parties, against their vanity, their Pride, their Resentment, or Revenge, or their Avarice, or Ambition. Nothing but Force and Power and Strength can restrain them.

  John Adams

  Revenge, Philosophy, Party

  John Adams (2016). “John Adams: Writings from the New Nation, 1784-1826”, p.102, Library of America

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  John Adams

  Law, Liberty, Doe

  7 Copy quote

• I consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for public service.

  John Adams

  Presidential, Christianity, Public Service

  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.110

  6 Copy quote

• When the Congress first met, Mr. Cushing made a motion that it should be opened with prayer . . . Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said he was no bigot, and could hear a prayer from a gentleman of piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his country. He . . . had heard that Mr. Duche . . . deserved that character and therefore he moved that Mr. Duche . . . might be desired to read prayers to the Congress . . . . After (he read several prayers), Mr. Duche, unexpected to everybody, struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present.

  John Adams

  Country, Prayer, Character

  6 Copy quote

• The people "have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge- I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers."

  John Adams

  Character, Mean, Divine Right

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

  11 Copy quote

• Power in any Form . . . when directed only by human Wisdom and Benevolence is dangerous.

  John Adams

  Human Nature, Form, Dangerous

  4 Copy quote

• You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

  John Adams

  Trust, Mean, Thinking

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 1: Life of John Adams”, p.191, Jazzybee Verlag

  55 Copy quote

• Ambition is the subtlest beast of the intellectual and moral field. It is wonderfully adroit in concealing itself from its owner.

  John Adams

  Ambition, Intellectual, Fields

  12 Copy quote

• Elections to office, which are the great objects of ambition, I look at with terror!

  John Adams

  Ambition, Office, Revolution

  10 Copy quote

• Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?

  John Adams

  Catholic Religion, Government, Anti 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.398

  7 Copy quote

• The dignity and stability of government in all its branches, the morals of the people, and every blessing of society depend so much upon an upright and skillful administration of justice, that the judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, as both should be checks upon that.

  John Adams

  Independent, Blessing, Government

  "Thoughts on Government" (1776)

  7 Copy quote

• As long as Property exists, it will accumulate in Individuals and Families. As long as Marriage exists, Knowledge, Property and Influence will accumulate in Families.

  John Adams

  Family, Long, Influence

  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.103

  6 Copy quote

• Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.

  John Adams

  Inspiring, Education, Book

  John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). “The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections”, p.18, Hackett Publishing

  16 Copy quote

• The form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best.

  John Adams

  Government, Numbers, Society

  John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). “The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections”, p.85, Hackett Publishing

  9 Copy quote

• The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?

  John Adams

  Kings, Race, Faith Religion

  John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson (1971). “The Adams-Jefferson letters: the complete correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams”, Touchstone

  13 Copy quote

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

  John Adams

  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”

  6 Copy quote

• Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.

  John Adams

  Freedom, Power, Self

  John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). “The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections”, p.196, Hackett Publishing

  8 Copy quote

• The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.

  John Adams

  Government, Essence, Political

  John Adams (2001). “The Political Writings of John Adams”, p.361, Regnery Publishing

  11 Copy quote

• The Europeans are all deeply tainted with prejudices, both ecclesiastical and temporal, which they can never get rid of. They are all infected with episcopal and presbyterian creeds, and confessions of faith. They all believe that great Principle which has produced this boundless universe, Newton's universe and Herschell's universe, came down to this little ball, to be spit upon by Jews. And until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.

  John Adams

  Believe, Principles, Prejudice

  John Adams (2004). “The Portable John Adams”, p.525, Penguin

  5 Copy quote

• A native of America who cannot read or write is . . . as rare as a comet or an earthquake.

  John Adams

  Education, Writing, America

  7 Copy quote

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