Family Quote by Alan Taylor

Uncritical reverence for the Founding Fathers was less ubiquitous while they actually lived. . . . "The Reign of Terror that raged in America…

— Thomas Paine

[John] Adams was arguing that a separate social order existed that needed to be embodied in senates and his fellow Americans could not accept…

— Gordon S. Wood

Americans, [John Adams] wrote in 1780, believed that their "revolution is as much for the benefit of the generality of Mankind in Europe, as…

— 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

“What was surprising--and would largely be forgotten as time went on--was how well Adams had done. Despite the malicious attacks on him, the furor…

— David McCullough

“Again, John Adams understood that the new Constitution simply lacked the powers to control a people who were, by their own lack of virtue,…

— Jack Pelham

“I am persuaded however that he [John Adams] means well for his Country, is always an honest Man, often a Wise One, but sometimes…

— Benjamin Franklin

“The Adams presidency, in fact, might be the classic example of the historical truism that inherited circumstances define the parameters within which presidential leadership…

— Joseph J. Ellis

“[John] Adams saw clearly that politics is the indispensable foundation for things elegant and beautiful. First and above all else, you must secure life,…

— Charles Krauthammer

Perhaps more significant than his experience in Europe, though, was [John] Adams's experience in his own country, and his extensive reading on the history…

— Gordon S. Wood

It was [John's Adams] Massachusetts constitution if anything that influenced people.

— Gordon S. Wood

“Some talked,some wrote, and some fought to promote and establish it, but you, Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson thought for us all”

— Benjamin Rush