John Adams

John Adams

Founding Father, Politician

John Adams was a Founding Father and the second President of the United States, known for his role in drafting the Declaration of Independence and advocating for liberty.

Men Government Law People Religious Liberty
Born
October 30, 1735
Died
July 4, 1826
Quotes
406
Rank
#3377

Quote collection

John Adams quotes (page 20 of 21)

406 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates in all future periods of this commonwealth to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences."

Graduation Country Opportunity
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"The frightful engines of ecclesiastical councils, of diabolical malice, and Calvinistical good-nature never failed to terrify me exceedingly whenever I thought of preaching."

Atheism Preaching Malice
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"I sometimes, in my sprightly moments, consider myself, in my great chair at school, as some dictator at the head of a commonwealth. In this little state I can discover all the great geniuses, all the surprising actions and revolutions of the great world in miniature. I have several renowned generals but three feet high, and several deep-projecting politicians in petticoats. I have others catching and dissecting flies, accumulating remarkable pebbles, cockleshells, etc., with as ardent curiosity as any virtuoso in the Royal Society."

School Knowledge Feet
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"Numberless have been the systems of iniquity contrived by the great for the gratification of this passion in themselves; but in none of them were they ever more successful than in the invention and establishment of the canon and the feudal law."

Success Passion Law
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"Major Greene this evening fell into some conversation with me about the Divinity and satisfaction of Jesus Christ. All the argument he advanced was, "that a mere creature or finite being could not make satisfaction to infinite justice for any crimes," and that "these things are very mysterious." Thus mystery is made a convenient cover for absurdity."

Wisdom Jesus Justice
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"The furnace of affliction produces refinement in states as well as individuals. And the new Governments we are assuming in every part will require a purification from our vices, and an augmentation of our virtues, or there will be no blessings."

Blessing Government Vices
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"Were I to define the British constitution, therefore, I should say, it is a limited monarchy, or a mixture of the three forms of government commonly known in the schools, reserving as much of the monarchical splendor, the aristocratical independency, and the democratical freedom, as are necessary that each of these powers may have a control, both in legislation and execution, over the other two, for the preservation of the subject's liberty."

School Government Two
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"Mr. Jefferson has reason to reflect upon himself. How he will get rid of his remorse in his retirement, I know not. He must know that he leaves the government infinitely worse than he found it, and that from his own error or ignorance."

Retirement Ignorance Errors
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"Since natural law was thought to be accessible to the ordinary man, the theory invited each juror to inquire for himself whether a particular rule of law was consonant with principles of higher law. This view is reflected in John Adams' statement that it would be an 'absurdity' for jurors to be required to accept the judge's view of the law, 'against their own opinion, judgment, and conscience.'"

Men Views Law
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"The question before the human race is, Whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether Priests and Kings shall rule it by fictitious Miracles? Or, in other words, whether authority is originally in the People? Or whether it has descended for 1800 Years in a succession of Popes and Bishops, or brought down from Heaven by the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove, in a Phial of holy Oil?"

Kings Law Oil
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"Vanity, I am sensible, is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly; and I am in continual danger, when in company, of being led an ignis fatuus chase by it."

Vanity Vices Danger
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"The only way to form an army to be confided in, was a systematic discipline, by which means all men may be made heroes."

Hero Mean Army
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"What is to become of an independent statesman, one who will bow the knee to no idol, who will worship nothing as a divinity but truth, virtue, and his country? I will tell you; he will be regarded more by posterity than those who worship hounds and horses; and although he will not make his own fortune, he will make the fortune of his country."

Country Horse Independent
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"There never was yet a people who must not have somebody or something to represent the dignity of the state."

Government People Dignity
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"Popularity, next to virtue and wisdom, ought to be aimed at; for it is the dictate of wisdom, and is necessary to the practice of virtue inmost."

Practice Next Popularity
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"You are apprehensive of monarchy; I, of aristocracy. I would therefore have given more power to the President and less to the Senate."

Power President Aristocracy
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?"

Men Principles Foundation
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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"What havoc, said I to myself, would these manners make in America! Our governors, our judges, our senators or representatives, and even our ministers, would be appointed by harlots, for money; and their judgments, decrees, and decisions, be sold to repay themselves, or, perhaps, to procure the smiles of profligate females."

America Judging Decision
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John Adams Founding Father, Politician
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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."

Stupid Passion Men
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