Virtue Quotes by John Adams

Virtue is not always amiable.

— John Adams

To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.

— John Adams

Modesty is a virtue that can never thrive in public.

— John Adams

Always stand on principle…even if you stand alone.

— John Adams

Let frugality and industry be our virtues.

— John Adams

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

— John Adams

I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them.

— John Adams

“I cannot help suspecting that the more elegance, the less virtue in all times and countries.”

— John Adams

The happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.

— John Adams

“To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.”

— John Adams

Happiness, whether in despotism or democracy, whether in slavery or liberty, can never be found without virtue

— John Adams

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

— John Adams

The whole drama of the world is such tragedy that I am weary of the spectacle.

— John Adams

All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his…

— John Adams

If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better…

— John Adams

Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government…

— John Adams

When public virtue is gone, when the national spirit is fled the republic is lost in essence, though it may still exist…

— John Adams

“Knowledge in the head and virtue in the heart, time devoted to study or business, instead of show and pleasure, are the…

— John Adams

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

— John Adams

The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom,…

— John Adams

It is an observation of one of the profoundest inquirers into human affairs that a revolution of government is the strongest proof…

— John Adams

We may... affirm that the balance of power in a society accompanies the balance of property in land. The only possible way,…

— John Adams

It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and…

— John Adams

All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor…

— John Adams

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

— John Adams

Honor is truly sacred, but holds a lower rank in the scale of moral excellence than virtue. Indeed the former is part…

— John Adams

The furnace of affliction produces refinement in states as well as individuals. And the new Governments we are assuming in every part…

— John Adams

What is to become of an independent statesman, one who will bow the knee to no idol, who will worship nothing as…

— John Adams

The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great…

— John Adams

The good of the governed is the end, and rewards and punishments are the means, of all government. The government of the…

— John Adams

Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people being necessary for the preservation of their…

— John Adams

Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and…

— John Adams

Elections, especially of representatives and counselors, should be annual, there not being in the whole circle of the sciences a maxim more…

— John Adams

It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three…

— John Adams

[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes…

— John Adams

When the Congress first met, Mr. Cushing made a motion that it should be opened with prayer . . . Mr. Samuel…

— John Adams

Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against…

— John Adams

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

— John Adams

Will you tell me how to prevent riches from producing luxury? Will you tell me how to prevent luxury from producing effeminacy,…

— John Adams

“I cannot think it either Vanity or Virtue to acknowledge, that the Acquisition and communication of Knowledge, are the sole Entertainment of…

— John Adams