John Adams Quotes - Page 4

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• 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

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

  John Adams

  Men, Judging, Interest

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• The happiness of society is the end of government.

  John Adams

  Happiness, Government, Presidential

  'Thoughts on Government' (1776)

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• The people, when they have been unchecked, have been as unjust, tyrannical, brutal, barbarous, and cruel, as any king or senate possessed of uncontrollable power. The majority has eternally, and without one exception, usurped over the rights of the minority.

  John Adams

  Kings, Rights, People

  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.10

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• It is not only the juror's right, but his duty to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment and conscience, though in direct opposition to the instruction of the court.

  John Adams

  War, Understanding, Drug

  "Justice Often Served By Jury Nullification". www.foxnews.com. August 01, 2005.

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• It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, "whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection," and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.

  John Adams

  Law, Ideas, Evil

  "John Adams: Quotes & Facts". Book by Blago Kirov, 2016.

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• The right of a nation to kill a tyrant, in cases of necessity, can no more be doubted, than to hang a robber, or kill a flea. But killing one tyrant only makes way for worse, unless the people have sense, spirit and honesty enough to establish and support a constitution guarded at all points against the tyranny of the one, the few, and the many.

  John Adams

  Honesty, Tyrants, People

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila”, p.110, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Public affairs go on pretty much as usual: perpetual chicanery and rather more personal abuse than there used to be.

  John Adams

  Abuse, Usual, Goes On

  John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail Adams, Lester Jesse Cappon, Institute of Early American History and Culture (Williamsburg, Va.) (1988). “The Adams-Jefferson letters: the complete correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams”, The University of North Carolina Press

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• The appearance of religion only on Sunday proves that it is only an appearance.

  John Adams

  Sunday, Appearance, Prove

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• Here, every private person is authorized to arm himself, and on the strength of this authority, I do not deny the inhabitants had a right to arm themselves at that time, for their defense, not for offense.

  John Adams

  Gun, Defense, Arms

  "Legal Papers of John Adams". Book edited by L. Kinvin Wroth and Hiller B. Zobel, 3:248, 1965.

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• Ambition is one of the ungovernable passions of the human heart. The love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable.

  John Adams

  Passion, Heart, Ambition

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• The government of the United States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.

  John Adams

  Character, Law, America

  "Treaty of Tripoli". Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary signed by President John Adams (Article 11), www.huffingtonpost.com. June 10, 1797.

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• In every society where property exists there will ever be a struggle between rich and poor. Mixed in one assembly, equal laws can never be expected; they will either be made by the member to plunder the few who are rich, or by the influence to fleece the many who are poor.

  John Adams

  Struggle, Law, Influence

  John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). “The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections”, p.158, Hackett Publishing

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• This is a revolution, damn it! We're going to have to offend somebody!

  John Adams

  Animal, Revolution, Animal Rights

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• As the government of the United States of America 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, - and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

  John Adams

  Christian, Religious, Atheist

  "Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Signed at Tripoli". The Barbary Treaties 1786-1816, avalon.law.yale.edu. November 04, 1796.

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• I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.

  John Adams

  Bible, God, Religious

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• In politics the middle way is none at all.

  John Adams

  Success, Law, Nerd

  Letter to Horatio Gates, 23 March 1776

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• And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people who have a right from the frame of their nature to knowledge, as their great Creator who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings and a desire to know. But besides this they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible divine right to the most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers.

  John Adams

  Education, Character, Mean

  John Adams (2004). “The Portable John Adams”, p.219, Penguin

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• The real fabric of American society is not all those flags you see on people's cars...it's in the Bill of Rights and in our constitutional form of government.

  John Adams

  Peace, Real, War

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• We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption.

  John Adams

  Weed, Marijuana, World

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• Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.

  John Adams

  Government, Liberty, Foundation

  Massachusetts Historical Society, John Adams, Samuel Adams, James Warren (1917). “Warren-Adams Letters: Being Chiefly a Correspondence Among John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Warren ... 1743-1814”

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• The whole drama of the world is such tragedy that I am weary of the spectacle.

  John Adams

  Drama, Tragedy, World

  John Adams (1841). “Letters of John Adams: Addressed to His Wife”, p.127

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• I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them.

  John Adams

  Events, Determined, Virtue

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• It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.

  John Adams

  Men, Presidential, Weakness

  John Adams (2004). “The Portable John Adams”, p.36, Penguin

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• Power always sincerely, conscientiously, de très bon foi, believes itself right. Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views, beyond the comprehension of the weak.

  John Adams

  Believe, Power, Thinking

  John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson (1959). “The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. 1812-1826”

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