John Adams Quotes - Page 14

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• I had heard my father say that he never knew a piece of land run away or break.

  John Adams

  Running, Father, Land

  John Adams, Lyman Henry Butterfield (1961). “Diary and Autobiography: Diary, 1782-1804. Autobiography to October 1776”

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• Whenever serious art loses track of its roots in the vernacular, then it begins to atrophy.

  John Adams

  Art, Roots, Track

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• Genius is sorrow's child.

  John Adams

  Children, Sorrow, Genius

  John Adams, Benjamin Waterhouse (1927). “Statesman and Friend: Correspondence of John Adams with Benjamin Waterhouse, 1784-1822”

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• Mr. Adams, describing a conversation with Jonathan Sewall in 1774, says: "I answered that the die was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon. Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination."

  John Adams

  Country, Determination, Swim

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• I was very strenuous for retaining and insisting on it [law of nature], as a resource to which we might be driven by Parliament much sooner than we were aware.

  John Adams

  Law, Might, Revolution

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1850). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.374

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• Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.

  John Adams

  Education

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.463

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• Modesty is a virtue that can never thrive in public.

  John Adams

  Modesty, Virtue, Thrive

  John Adams, Robert Joseph Taylor, Gregg L. Lint (1989). “Papers of John Adams”

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• You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular; you are very much otherwise. And you can write ten times better than I can.

  John Adams

  Writing, Revolution, Obnoxious

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1850). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.514

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• Liberty, according to my metaphysics, is an intellectual quality, an attribute that belongs not to fate nor chance. Neither possesses it, neither is capable of it. There is nothing moral or immoral in the idea of it. The definition of it is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power; it can elect between objects, indifferent in point of morality, neither morally good nor morally evil.

  John Adams

  Fate, America, Self

  John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). “The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections”, p.196, Hackett Publishing

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• Negro Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude. I am therefore utterly averse to the admission of Slavery into the Missouri Territory, and heartily wish that every Constitutional measure may be adopted for the preservation of it.

  John Adams

  Evil, Slavery, Territory

  Letter to William Tudor, Jr., founders.archives.gov. November 20, 1819.

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• Popularity, next to virtue and wisdom, ought to be aimed at; for it is the dictate of wisdom, and is necessary to the practice of virtue inmost.

  John Adams

  Practice, Next, Popularity

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1850). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.57

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• I am well pleased with what I hear of you: The principal Satisfaction I can expect in Life, in future will be in your good Behavior and that of my other Children. My Hopes from all of you are very agreable. God grant, I may not be disappointed.

  John Adams

  Family, Children, May

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• Let us hear the dangers of thralldom to our consciences from ignorance, extreme poverty, and dependence; in short, from civil and political slavery. Let us see delineated before us the true map of man. Let us hear the dignity of his nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God-that consenting to slavery is a sacrilegious breach of trust, as offensive in the sight of God as it is derogatory from our own honor or interest or happiness-and that God Almighty has promulgated from heaven liberty, peace, and goodwill to man!

  John Adams

  Peace, Ignorance, Men

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• Your Letters concerning Miss N. have given me as much Concern as they ought-not knowing the Character nor what to advise, but feeling all a Fathers Tenderness, longing to be at home that I might enquire and consider and take the Care I ought.

  John Adams

  Family, Father, Home

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• The public negotiations and secret intrigues of the English (Jews) and the French (Jews) have been employed for centuries in every court and country in Europe. Look back to the history of Spain, Holland, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Italy and Turkey for the last hundred years...all the power of Europe will be continually maneuvering with us to work us into the real or imaginary balance of power.

  John Adams

  Country, Real, Turkeys

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• If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, and that a free country!

  John Adams

  Country, Sacrifice, Offering

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• Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.

  John Adams

  Education, Wise, Learning

  John Adams (1841). “Letters of John Adams: Addressed to His Wife”, p.284

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• The History of our Revolution will be one continued Lye from one End to the other. The Essence of the whole will be that Dr Franklins electrical Rod, Smote the Earth and out Spring General Washington. That Franklin electrified him with his Rod - and thence forward these two conducted all the Policy Negotiations Legislation and War.

  John Adams

  Lying, War, Two

  John Adams' Letter to Benjamin Rush, founders.archives.gov. April 4, 1790.

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• When I was young, and addicted to reading, I had heard about dancing on the points of metaphysical needles; but, by mixing in the world, I found the points of political needles finer and sharper than the metaphysical ones.

  John Adams

  Dance, Reading, Dancing

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.315

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• Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.

  John Adams

  Liberty, Revolution, Unexpected

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “Works: with a life of the author”, p.391

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• I request that they may be considered in confidence, until the members of Congress are fully possessed of their contents, and shall have had opportunity to deliberate on the consequences of their publication; after which time, I submit them to your wisdom.

  John Adams

  Wisdom, Opportunity, May

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.158

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• [T]he liberty, the unalienable, indefeasible rights of men, the honor and dignity of human nature, the grandeur and glory of the public, and the universal happiness of individuals, were never so skillfully and successfully consulted as in that most excellent monument of human art, the common law of England.

  John Adams

  Art, Freedom, Men

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.440

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• When you see a good move, sit on your hands and find a better one.

  John Adams

  Moving, Hands, Chess

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• The universal object and idol of men of letters is reputation.

  John Adams

  Writing, Men, Idols

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.240

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• One sailor will do us more good than two soldiers.

  John Adams

  Two, Soldier, Sailor

  John Adams (1809). “Correspondence of the Late President Adams”, p.173

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