Declaration of independence Quotes by Gordon S. Wood

[The Massachusetts constitution] resembles the federal Constitution of 1787 more closely than any of the other revolutionary state constitutions. It was also drawn up…

— Gordon S. Wood

If history teaches anything, it teaches humility.

— Gordon S. Wood

[John] Adams identified himself with the political theories of [James] Harrington, [John] Locke, and [Charles-Louis] Montesquieu, whose ideas of constitutionalism, he believed, were applicable…

— Gordon S. Wood

[John] Adams was the best and most colorful stylist among the Founders. Although [Tomas] Jefferson is widely regarded as the smoothest writer, Adams is…

— Gordon S. Wood

This rationale, which justified the mixed constitution of Great Britain, might have made some sense in 1776, but by 1787 most American thinkers had…

— Gordon S. Wood

By the time [John Adams] came to write his Defence of the Constitutions of the United States in 1787 he had as dark a…

— Gordon S. Wood

Creating senates, the French critics said, implied that there was another social order besides the people represented in the houses of representatives. [John] Adams…

— Gordon S. Wood

By 1782 [John Adams] had come to feel for [Benjamin] Franklin "no other sentiments than Contempt or Abhorrence."

— Gordon S. Wood

I think [John Adams] developed a much deeper suspicion of France and the other European powers than he had earlier. He lost much if…

— Gordon S. Wood

[John] Adams never had an optimistic view of human nature, and his experience in the Congress and abroad only deepened his suspicion that his…

— Gordon S. Wood

A mutual friend, Benjamin Rush, brought [Tomas Jefferson and John Adams] together in 1812, and they went on to exchange letters for the rest…

— Gordon S. Wood

“Intellectual activity in a culture is not a one-way flow between the great minds and passive recipients; it is a discourse, a complex marketplace-like…

— Gordon S. Wood