Adams, John (John Adams)

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.
-- John Adams

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right... and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers.
-- John Adams

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.
-- John Adams

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.
-- John Adams

A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
-- John Adams

Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
-- John Adams

Genius is sorrow's child.
-- John Adams

Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.
-- John Adams

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.
-- John Adams

The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity.
-- John Adams

The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.
-- John Adams

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.
-- John Adams

There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.
-- John Adams

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.
-- John Adams

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.
-- John Adams

Politeness, delicacy, or decency... are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery, and cowardice.
-- John Adams

Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
-- John Adams

Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.
-- John Adams

If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?
-- John Adams

Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.
-- John Adams

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.
-- John Adams

The happiness of society is the end of government.
-- John Adams

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.
-- John Adams

There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.
-- John Adams

There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties... This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.
-- John Adams

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right... and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers.
-- John Adams

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.
-- John Adams

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.
-- John Adams

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
-- John Adams

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.
-- John Adams

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.
-- John Adams

All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, so much as downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.
-- John Adams

The desire of the esteem of others is as real as a want of nature as hunger.

-- John Adams

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