John Adams Quotes - Page 2

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• Property monopolized or in the possession of a few is a curse to mankind.

  John Adams

  Mankind, Possession, Curse

  John Adams, Robert Joseph Taylor “Papers of John Adams”, Harvard University Press

  33 Copy quote

• But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations ... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.

  John Adams

  Religious, Real, War

  Letter to Hezekiah Niles, 13 Feb. 1818

  34 Copy quote

• The only thing most people do better than anyone else is read their own handwriting.

  John Adams

  People, Handwriting

  49 Copy quote

• Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

  John Adams

  Freedom, Government, Forever

  Abigail Adams, John Adams, L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Mary-Jo Kline (1975). “The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784”, p.95, UPNE

  50 Copy quote

• 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 the public liberty.

  John Adams

  Inspirational, Trust, Freedom

  'Notes for an Oration at Braintree' (Spring 1772)

  124 Copy quote

• Ideology is the science of idiots.

  John Adams

  Idiot, Ideology

  113 Copy quote

• Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.

  John Adams

  Names, Hypocrisy, Suffering

  "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law" by John Adams, teachingamericanhistory.org. 1765.

  174 Copy quote

• The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

  John Adams

  Freedom, Writing, Power

  A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law (1765)

  145 Copy quote

• Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.

  John Adams

  Libertarian Party, Liberty, Majority

  69 Copy quote

• Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.

  John Adams

  Education, Freedom, Knowledge

  'A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law' (1765)

  36 Copy quote

• My God! This is a revolution! We have to offend someone!

  John Adams

  Religion, Revolution

  113 Copy quote

• Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.

  John Adams

  Party, Government, Unnecessary War

  John Adams (2016). “John Adams: Writings from the New Nation, 1784-1826”, p.814, Library of America

  105 Copy quote

• Everything in life should be done with reflection.

  John Adams

  Reflection, Done, Should

  6 Copy quote

• Negro slavery is an evil of colossal magnitude.

  John Adams

  Evil, Slavery, Magnitude

  John Adams (1997). “Rivoluzioni e Costituzioni”, p.37, Guida Editori

  8 Copy quote

• We may... affirm that the balance of power in a society accompanies the balance of property in land. The only possible way, then, of preserving the balance of power on the side of liberty and public virtue is to make the acquisition of land easy to every member of society; to make a division of the land into small quantities, so that the multitude may be possessed of landed estates.

  John Adams

  Land, Balance, Liberty

  John Adams, Frederick K. Sanders (1975). “John Adams Speaking: Pound's Sources for the Adams Cantos”

  9 Copy quote

• Our whole system of banks is a violation of every honest principle of banks. There is no honest bank but a bank of deposit. A bank that issues paper at interest is a pickpocket or a robber. But the delusion will have its course. ... An aristocracy is growing out of them that will be as fatal as the feudal barons if unchecked in time.

  John Adams

  Issues, Principles, Aristocracy

  John Adams, Benjamin Rush (1892). “Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle... Series A-[B]”

  101 Copy quote

• A militia law, requiring all men, or with very few exceptions besides cases of conscience, to be provided with arms and ammunition... is always a wise institution, and, in the present circumstances of our country, indispensable.

  John Adams

  Wise, Country, Men

  John Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.199

  16 Copy quote

• ...Cities may be rebuilt, and a People reduced to Poverty, may acquire fresh Property: But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrendered their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.

  John Adams

  Government, Cities, People

  John Adams (2003). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.50, Penguin

  82 Copy quote

• When legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.

  John Adams

  People, Undone, Legislature

  16 Copy quote

• Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.

  John Adams

  Suicide, Selfish, Passion

  Letter to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

  27 Copy quote

• Before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it. And I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and Independence for ever!

  John Adams

  Believe, Heart, Blessing

  28 Copy quote

• The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly [with your God]. This is enough.

  John Adams

  Thinking, Mercy, Enough

  "3 Biblical Tips to Stay Sane in Our Overloaded World" by Levi Ben-Shmuel, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 22, 2014.

  48 Copy quote

• 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 a flea.

  John Adams

  Strength, Peace, Tyrants

  John Adams (1794). “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America: Against the Attack of M. Turgot in His Letter to Dr. Price, Dated the Twenty-second Day of March, 1778”, p.385

  29 Copy quote

• The date will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

  John Adams

  Sports, 4th Of July, Believe

  Letter to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776

  67 Copy quote

• As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims] ... it is declared ... that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever product an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.... The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.

  John Adams

  Christian, Country, Religious

  168 Copy quote

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