John Adams Quotes
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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.
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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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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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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.
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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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The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.
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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.
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Omnium rerum domina, virtus. Virtue is the mistress of all things. Virtue is the master of all things. Therefore a nation that should never do wrong must necessarily govern the world. The might of virtue, the power of virtue, is not a very common topic, not so common as it should be.
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I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either.
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Let us tenderly and kindly cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
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Although neither nation has been brought to admit that they were chargeable with the first infraction, yet no American can forget the carrying off the negroes.
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There is one Resolution I will not omit. Resolved that no Slaves be imported into any of the thirteen colonies.