John Adams Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• When legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.

  John Adams

  People, Undone, Legislature

  16 Copy quote

• Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.

  John Adams

  Strength, Peace, Patriotic

  27 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

  28 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

• 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

• 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

• Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers and destroyers press upon them so fast that there is no resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachments is to, grow every day more encroaching; like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour.

  John Adams

  Cancer, People, Giving

  John Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.43

  12 Copy quote

• As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it.

  John Adams

  Government, People, Foundation

  John Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.193

  48 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.

  47 Copy quote

• We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular governments. But there is great danger that those governments will not make us happy. God grant they may. But I fear that in every assembly, members will obtain an influence by noise, not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not learning. By contracted hearts, not large souls.

  John Adams

  Heart, Ignorance, Greatness

  John Adams, Robert Joseph Taylor (1979). “Papers of John Adams”

  29 Copy quote

• That the desires of the majority of the people are often for injustice and inhumanity against the minority, is demonstrated by every page of the history of the world.

  John Adams

  People, Democracy, Desire

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila”, p.43, Jazzybee Verlag

  24 Copy quote
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  Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.

  John Adams

  Leadership, Character, Persistence

  "I’ll Vote for That" by Katharine Rose, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 22, 2015.

  52 Copy quote

• He is too illiterate, unread, unlearned for his station and reputation.

  John Adams

  Government, Reputation, Illiterate

  64 Copy quote

• The true source of our sufferings has been our timidity.

  John Adams

  Suffering, Source, Dissertation

  John Adams (2001). “The Political Writings of John Adams”, p.15, Regnery Publishing

  14 Copy quote

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

  John Adams

  People, Handwriting

  48 Copy quote

• Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.

  John Adams

  Motivational, Horse, Exercise

  "Presidential Proverbs: Quotes From U.S. Presidents Past, Present, and Future" by Kevin Daum, www.inc.com. November 09, 2016.

  32 Copy quote

• It would be an absurdity for jurors to be required to accept the judge's view of the law, against their own opinion, judgment, and conscience.

  John Adams

  Views, Law, Judging

  7 Copy quote

• The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.

  John Adams

  Education, School, Squares

  John Adams (1971). “The Works [of] John Adams, Second President of the United States: Official letters, messages, and public papers. Correspondence”

  80 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

• 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 believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.

  John Adams

  Atheist, Believe, Fate

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 9: Letters and State Papers 1799 - 1811”, p.479, Jazzybee Verlag

  60 Copy quote

• Everything in life should be done with reflection.

  John Adams

  Reflection, Done, Should

  6 Copy quote

• An honest, sensible, humane man, . . . laboring to do good rather than be rich, to be useful rather than make a show, living in modest simplicity . . . is really the most respectable man in society, [and] makes himself and all about him most happy.

  John Adams

  Money, Men, Simplicity

  9 Copy quote

• [L]iberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.

  John Adams

  Freedom, Father, Blood

  Joseph E. SPRAGUE, John Adams (1826). “An Eulogy on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, etc”, p.36

  36 Copy quote

• Fear is the foundation of most governments.

  John Adams

  Fear, Patriotic, Government

  'Thoughts on Government' (1776)

  27 Copy quote

• We hold that each man is the best judge of his own interest.

  John Adams

  Men, Judging, Interest

  10 Copy quote

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