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…

— 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,…

— 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,…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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.…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— Gordon S. Wood

[John] Adams's perception of Europe, and especially France, was clearly different than [Tomas] Jefferson's. For Jefferson, the luxury and sophistication of Europe…

— Gordon S. Wood

History is the queen of the humanities. It teaches wisdom and humility, and it tells us how things change through time.

— Gordon S. Wood

“In the decades following the Revolution, America changed so much and so rapidly that Americans not only became used to change, but…

— Gordon S. Wood

Deeply versed in history, [John Adams] said over and over that America had no special providence, no special role in history, that…

— Gordon S. Wood

“Virtue became less the harsh and martial self-sacrifice of antiquity and more the modern willingness to get along with others for the…

— Gordon S. Wood

[John] Adams's letters to [his wife] Abigail are wonderful. In his letters, he is loving, humorous, preachy, learned, and saucy. He speaks…

— Gordon S. Wood

The relationship between [John] Adams and [Tomas] Jefferson was extraordinary. They differed on every conceivable issue, except on the Revolution and the…

— Gordon S. Wood

[John Adams] experience with the French philosophers only convinced him further of the need for a bicameral legislature representing the two principal…

— Gordon S. Wood

[Tomas] Jefferson believed that the United States was a chosen nation with a special responsibility to spread democracy around the world.

— Gordon S. Wood

[John's Adams] description of [Benjamin] Franklin in a letter to [his wife] Abigail in 1775 is laudatory. Only when he experiences all…

— Gordon S. Wood

After [Tomas] Jefferson's defeat of [John] Adams in the presidential election of 1800, they didn't communicate with one another for more than…

— Gordon S. Wood

I think [John] Adams was correct when he said that his May resolutions were "an Epocha, a decisive Event," and tantamount to…

— Gordon S. Wood

[John Adams] is impressed with [Tomas] Jefferson's learning, but noted his silence during the debates in the Congress: "I never heard him…

— Gordon S. Wood