John Quincy Adams

If there have been those who doubted whether a confederated representative democracy were a government competent to the wise and orderly management…

— John Quincy Adams

A barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and hardly could spell his own name… One of our tribe of…

— John Quincy Adams

Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will be America's heart, her benedictions and her…

— John Quincy Adams

Man wants but little here below Nor wants that little long, 'Tis not with me exactly so; But 'tis so in the…

— John Quincy Adams

Whether to the nation or to the state, no service can be or ever will be rendered by a more able or…

— John Quincy Adams

Heaven has given to every human being the power of controlling his passions, and if he neglects or loses it, the fault…

— John Quincy Adams

It is by a thorough knowledge of the whole subject that [people] are enabled to judge correctly of the past and to…

— John Quincy Adams

In order to preserve the dominion of our own passions, it behooves us to be constantly and strictly on our guard against…

— John Quincy Adams

I do conscientiously and sincerely believe that the Order of Freemasonry, if not the greatest, is one of the greatest moral and…

— John Quincy Adams

The political system of the United States is essentially extra-European. To stand in firm and cautious independence of all entanglement in the…

— John Quincy Adams

Of the two great political parties which have divided the opinions and feelings of our country, the candid and the just will…

— John Quincy Adams

The conflict between the principle of liberty and the fact of slavery is coming gradually to an issue. Slavery has now the…

— John Quincy Adams

There still remains one effort of magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and passion, to be made by the individuals throughout the nation…

— John Quincy Adams

What is the right of the huntsman to the forest of a thousand miles over which he has accidentally ranged in quest…

— John Quincy Adams

To read the Bible is of itself a laudable occupation and can scarcely fail of being a useful employment of time; but…

— John Quincy Adams

And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of order, the Fountain of justice, and the Protector, in all…

— John Quincy Adams

Slavery is the great and foul stain upon the North American Union... A dissolution, at least temporary, of the Union, as now…

— John Quincy Adams

To preserve, to improve, and to perpetuate the sources and to direct in their most effective channels the streams which contribute to…

— John Quincy Adams

The public history of all countries, and all ages, is but a sort of mask, richly colored. The interior working of the…

— John Quincy Adams

I want the seals of power and place, the ensigns of command, charged by the people's unbought grace, to rule my native…

— John Quincy Adams

“If the fundamental principles in the Declaration of Independence, as self-evident truths, are real truths, the existence of slavery, in any form,…

— John Quincy Adams

This mode of electioneering suited neither my taste nor my principles. I thought it equally unsuitable to my personal character and to…

— John Quincy Adams

The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the…

— John Quincy Adams

...he [Muhammad] declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind...The precept of the…

— John Quincy Adams

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She…

— John Quincy Adams

So far as the object of taxation is to raise a revenue for discharging the debts and defraying the expenses of the…

— John Quincy Adams