Quotes by John Adams

• Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.
• I 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.
• Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
• In politics the middle way is none at all.
• The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it.
• I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.
• I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
• Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
• While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill - little better understood, little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago.
• When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.
• 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.
• If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?
• There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.
• The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.
• The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.
• The happiness of society is the end of government.
• Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
• The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.
• Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.
• Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
• Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.
• Fear is the foundation of most governments.
• Genius is sorrow's child.
• Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
• Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.
• Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
• Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.
• My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.
• Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.
• Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.
• The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.
• A government of laws, and not of men.
• Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
• All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.
• As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my children.
• 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.
• Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
• Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
• America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
• Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.
• All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.
• Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.
• Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.
• If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
• The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.
• Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life, it’s about what you inspire others to do.
• Don't be afraid to fail; be afraid of never trying. Remember, even the greatest oak was once just a nut that held its ground.
• Success is like a fart; it only priority sees if you give it a scent – keep it to yourself for best results!
• Success is not only about what you accomplish in your life, but what you inspire others to do.
• Success is just two simple things: knowing what to do and doing it. Sadly, most people excel in the former!
• Life is like a roll of toilet paper: the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.