John Adams Quotes
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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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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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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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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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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.
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A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.
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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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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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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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Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
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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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There is one Resolution I will not omit. Resolved that no Slaves be imported into any of the thirteen colonies.