Samuel Adams quotes

Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a key leader during the American Revolution. As one of the Founding Fathers, his efforts were crucial in organizing resistance against British rule and shaping the new nation’s ideals. He became a symbol of liberty and played a major role in establishing the principles of American democracy. Here are 81 of his quotes:

The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. (Samuel Adams)
The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule. View quote
Samuel Adams
If Virtue & Knowledge are diffus'd among the People, they will never be enslav'd. This will be their great Security. View quote
Samuel Adams
Courage, then, my countrymen, our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty. View quote
Samuel Adams
If ever the Time should come, when vain & aspiring Men shall possess the highest Seats in Government, our Country will stand in Need of its experienced Patriots to prevent its Ruin. View quote
Samuel Adams
He who is void of virtuous Attachments in private Life, is, or very soon will be void of all Regard for his Country. There is seldom an Instance of a Man guilty of betraying his Country, who had not before lost the Feeling of moral Obligations in his private Connections. View quote
Samuel Adams
How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words! View quote
Samuel Adams
I firmly believe that the benevolent Creator designed the republican Form of Government for Man. View quote
Samuel Adams
Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. View quote
Samuel Adams
It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in the minds of men. View quote
Samuel Adams
Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all? (Samuel Adams)
Freedom of thought and the right of private judgment, in matters of conscience, driven from every other corner of the earth, direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum. View quote
Samuel Adams
In monarchy the crime of treason may admit of being pardoned or lightly punished, but the man who dares rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death. View quote
Samuel Adams
The truth is, all might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought. View quote
Samuel Adams
All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another. View quote
Samuel Adams
In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practised, and, both by precept and example, inculcated on mankind. View quote
Samuel Adams
"Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty," in matters spiritual and temporal, is a thing that all men are clearly entitled to by the eternal and immutable laws of God and nature, as well as by the law of nations and all well-grounded municipal laws, which must have their foundation in the former. View quote
Samuel Adams
It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions. View quote
Samuel Adams
The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. View quote
Samuel Adams
We cannot make Events. Our Business is wisely to improve them. View quote
Samuel Adams
It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, - to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves. (Samuel Adams)
And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of time press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless when necessary for the defence of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions. View quote
Samuel Adams
What a glorious morning is this! View quote
Samuel Adams
Did the protection we received annul our rights as men, and lay us under an obligation of being miserable? Who among you, my countrymen, that is a father, would claim authority to make your child a slave because you had nourished him in infancy? 'Tis a strange species of generosity which requires a return infinitely more valuable than anything it could have bestowed; that demands as a reward for a defense of our property a surrender of those inestimable privileges, to the arbitrary will of vindictive tyrants, which alone give value to that very property. View quote
Samuel Adams
He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to human happiness obvious to all. Our forefathers threw off the yoke of Popery in religion; for you is reserved the honor of leveling the popery of politics. They opened the Bible to all, and maintained the capacity of every man to judge for himself in religion. View quote
Samuel Adams