John Adams quotes

John Adams was an American statesman, lawyer, and Founding Father, who served as the second President of the United States. A leader in the movement for American independence, he played a key role in drafting the Declaration of Independence. He greatly influenced the early development of the nation’s government and political philosophy. Here are 241 of his quotes:

The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. (John Adams)
Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order. View quote
John Adams
Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. View quote
John Adams
All the perplexities, confusions, and distress in America arise, not from defects in their constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation. View quote
John Adams
I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth. View quote
John Adams
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. View quote
John Adams
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence... View quote
John Adams
The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. View quote
John Adams
Thomas - Jefferson - still surv. View quote
John Adams
Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist. View quote
John Adams
The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body. (John Adams)
You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other. View quote
John Adams
When annual elections end, there slavery begins. View quote
John Adams
I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof. View quote
John Adams
The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a Theatrical Show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that; i.e. all the Glory of it. View quote
John Adams
A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man. View quote
John Adams
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. View quote
John Adams
You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket. View quote
John Adams
Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives. View quote
John Adams
A government of laws, and not of men. View quote
John Adams
When people talk of the Freedom of Writing, Speaking, or thinking, I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more. (John Adams)
Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. View quote
John Adams
Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society. View quote
John Adams
While all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago. View quote
John Adams
In politics the middle way is none at all. View quote
John Adams