John Adams Quotes

137 quotes in 1497 categories

• The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill…
• Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
• Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts…
• Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
• I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
• All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so…
• Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.
• Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
• There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger…
• Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
• Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
• Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
• The happiness of society is the end of government.
• Fear is the foundation of most governments.
• The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still…
• A government of laws, and not of men.
• In politics the middle way is none at all.
• Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.
• Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
• The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.

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