John Adams quotes - page 9

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 ... it is declared ... that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. (John Adams)
There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live. View quote
John Adams
Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases. View quote
John Adams
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. View quote
John Adams
Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide. View quote
John Adams
I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman. View quote
John Adams
Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. View quote
John Adams
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. View quote
John Adams
Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. View quote
John Adams
I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate. View quote
John Adams
My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived. (John Adams)
The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws. View quote
John Adams
Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty. View quote
John Adams
Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power. View quote
John Adams
Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell. View quote
John Adams
As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my children. View quote
John Adams
Tacitus appears to have been as great an enthusiast as Petrarch for the revival of the republic and universal empire. He has exerted the vengeance of history upon the emperors, but has veiled the conspiracies against them, and the incorrigible corruption of the people which probably provoked their most atrocious cruelties. Tyranny can scarcely be practised upon a virtuous and wise people. View quote
John Adams
There is something very unnatural and odious in a government a thousand leagues off. A whole government of our own choice, managed by persons whom we love, revere, and can confide in, has charms in it for which men will fight. View quote
John Adams
Neither my father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, great grandfather or great grandmother, nor any other relation that I know of, or care a farthing for, has been in England these one hundred and fifty years; so that you see I have not one drop of blood in my veins but what is American. View quote
John Adams
A single assembly will never be a steady guardian of the laws, if Machiavel is right, when he says, Men are never good but through necessity: on the contrary, when good and evil are left to their choice, they will not fail to throw every thing into disorder and confusion. Hunger and poverty may make men industrious, but laws only can make them good; for, if men were so of themselves, there would be no occasion for laws; but, as the case is far otherwise, they are absolutely necessary. View quote
John Adams
As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760–1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington. (John Adams)
Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart. View quote
John Adams
This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it. View quote
John Adams
The Europeans are all deeply tainted with prejudices, both ecclesiastical and temporal, which they can never get rid of. They are all infected with episcopal and presbyterian creeds, and confessions of faith. They all believe that great Principle which has produced this boundless universe, Newton's universe and Herschell's universe, came down to this little ball, to be spit upon by Jews. And until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world. View quote
John Adams
I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation. View quote
John Adams