"I shall have the liberty to think for myself."
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Quote collection
John Adams quotes (page 13 of 21)
406 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I do not like the reappearance of the Jesuits.... Shall we not have regular swarms of them here, in as many disguises as only a king of the gipsies can assume, dressed as printers, publishers, writers and schoolmasters? If ever there was a body of men who merited damnation on earth and in Hell, it is this society of Loyola's. Nevertheless, we are compelled by our system of religious toleration to offer them an asylum."
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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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"Politics are a labyrinth without a clue."
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"The balance of power in a society accompanies the balance of property in land."
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"The happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue."
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"I consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for public service."
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"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."
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"As long as Property exists, it will accumulate in Individuals and Families. As long as Marriage exists, Knowledge, Property and Influence will accumulate in Families."
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"But all provisions that He (God) has made for the gratification of our senses…are much inferior to the provision, the wonderful provision that He has made for the gratification of our nobler powers of intelligence and reason. He has given us reason to find out the truth, and the real design and true end of our existence."
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"Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics."
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"The ten commandments and the sermon on the mount contain my religion."
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"You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular; you are very much otherwise. And you can write ten times better than I can."
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"Genius is sorrow's child."
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"The numbers of men in all ages have preferred ease, slumber, and good cheer to liberty, when they have been in competition."
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"By the former of these (canon law), the most refined, sublime, extensive, and astonishing constitution of policy that ever was conceived by the mind of man was framed by the Romish clergy for the aggrandizement of their own order."
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"They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts."
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"The universal object and idol of men of letters is reputation."
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"[T]he liberty, the unalienable, indefeasible rights of men, the honor and dignity of human nature, the grandeur and glory of the public, and the universal happiness of individuals, were never so skillfully and successfully consulted as in that most excellent monument of human art, the common law of England."
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"I Pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on this house, and on ALL that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof!"
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