John Adams quotes - page 2

[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)
I read my eyes out and can't read half enough. ... The more one reads the more one sees we have to read. View quote
John Adams
By my physical constitution I am but an ordinary man ... Yet some great events, some cutting expressions, some mean hypocracies, have at times thrown this assemblage of sloth, sleep, and littleness into rage like a lion. View quote
John Adams
A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition. View quote
John Adams
If the Christian religion, as I understand it, or as you understand it, should maintain its ground, as I believe it will, yet Platonic, Pythagoric, Hindoo, and cabalistical Christianity, which is Catholic Christianity, and which has prevailed for 1500 years, has received a mortal wound, of which the monster must finally die. Yet so strong is his constitution, that he may endure for centuries before he expires. View quote
John Adams
The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to prevent their growth in our own. View quote
John Adams
Yesterday, the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States. View quote
John Adams
Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people. View quote
John Adams
Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. View quote
John Adams
The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries. View quote
John Adams
I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in 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)
Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it. View quote
John Adams
The happiness of society is the end of government. View quote
John Adams
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. View quote
John Adams
Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion? View quote
John Adams
There never was yet a people who must not have somebody or something to represent the dignity of the state, the majesty of the people, call it what you will - a doge, an avoyer, an archon, a president, a consul, a syndic; this becomes at once an object of ambition and dispute, and, in time, of division, faction, sedition, and rebellion. View quote
John Adams
I had heard my father say that he never knew a piece of land run away or break. View quote
John Adams
My best wishes, in the joys, and festivities, and the solemn services of that day on which will be completed the fiftieth year from its birth, of the independence of the United States: a memorable epoch in the annals of the human race, destined in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be shaped by the human mind. View quote
John Adams
Thanks be to God, that he gave me Stubborness, when I know I am right. View quote
John Adams
The rich, the well-born, and the able, acquire an influence among the people that will soon be too much for simple honesty and plain sense, in a house of representatives. The most illustrious of them must, therefore, be separated from the mass, and placed by themselves in a senate; this is, to all honest and useful intents, an ostracism. View quote
John Adams
It is folly to anticipate evils, and madness to create imaginary ones. (John Adams)
Let them revere nothing but religion, morality and liberty. View quote
John Adams
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. View quote
John Adams
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 sprung General Washington. That Franklin electrified him with his rod-and thence forward these two conducted all the Policy, Negotiations, Legislatures and War. View quote
John Adams
But America is a great, unwieldy Body. Its Progress must be slow. It is like a large Fleet sailing under Convoy. The fleetest Sailors must wait for the dullest and slowest. Like a Coach and six-the swiftest Horses must be slackened and the slowest quickened, that all may keep an even Pace. View quote
John Adams