John Adams Quotes
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Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.
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You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other.
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Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.
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Let them revere nothing but religion, morality and liberty.
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Thanks be to God, that he gave me Stubborness, when I know I am right.
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Is there no way for two friendly souls to converse together, although the bodies are 400 miles off? Yes, by letter. But I want a better communication. I want to hear your think, or to see your thoughts.The conclusion of your letter makes my heart throb more than a cannonade would. You bid me burn your letters. But I must forget you first.
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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 these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.'
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But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
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My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived; and as I can do neither good nor evil, I must be borne away by others and meet the common fate.
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There are few people in this world with whom I can converse.
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When annual elections end, there slavery begins.
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A government of laws, and not of men.
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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.
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There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
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All the perplexities, confusions, and distresses in America arise, not from defects in their constitution or confederation, not from a want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.
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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.
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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.
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No pretext, arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
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I can treat all with decency and civility, and converse with them, when it is necessary, on points of business. But I am never happy in their company.
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Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.
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Liberty 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.
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It is folly to anticipate evils, and madness to create imaginary ones.
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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.
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Posterity! you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.