Quotes from John Quincy Adams

No one knows, and few conceive, the agony of mind that I have suffered from the time that I was made by circumstances, and not by my volition, a candidate for the Presidency till I was dismissed from that station by the failure of my election.

All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

However tiresome to others, the most indefatigable orator is never tedious to himself. The sound of his own voice never loses its harmony to his own ear; and among the delusions, which self-love is ever assiduous in attempting to pass upon virtue, he fancies himself to be sounding the sweetest tones

A politician in this country must be the man of a party. I would fain be the man of my whole country.

To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

Oh! God, my only trust went there Through all life's scenes before Lo! At the throne again I bow, New mercies to implore. Grant active power, grant fervent zeal, And guide by thy control, And ever be my country's weal The purpose of my soul. Extend, all seeing God, thy hand In memory still decree And make, to bless thy native land An instrument of me. -September 21, 1817

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

Be a great speaker, become a leader.

A wiser and more useful philosophy, however, directs us to consider man according to the nature in which he was formed; subject to infirmities, which no wisdom can remedy; to weaknesses, which no institution can strengthen; to vices, which no legislation can correct. Hence,

Occasional war is one of the rigorous instruments in the hands of Providence to give tone to the character of nations.

Let us not be unmindful that liberty is power: that the nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty must, in proportion to its numbers, be the most powerful nation on earth, and that the tenure of power by man is, in the moral purpose of his Creator, upon condition that it shall be exercised to ends of beneficence, to improve the condition of himself and his fellow men.

Por donde sea que el estandarte de la libertad y la independencia se haya desplegado o se vaya a desplegar, ahí estarán su corazón, sus bendiciones y sus plegarias. Pero no irán a ultramar en busca de monstruos que destruir. Desearán la libertad y la independencia de todos, pero sólo serán paladines y justificadores de sí mismos.

The art of making love, muffled up in furs, in the open air, with the thermometer at Zero, is a Yankee invention.

Is not the brand of 'double-dealer' stamped on the forehead of every democratic slaveholder? Are not fraud and hypocrisy the religion of the man who calls himself a democrat, and hold his fellow-man in bondage?

Among the sentiments of most powerful operation upon the human heart, and most highly honorable to the human character, are those of veneration for our forefathers and of love for our posterity.

This idea of the transcendent power of the Supreme Being is essentially connected with that by which the whole duty of man is summed up: obedience to His will.

I have no predilection for unpopularity as such, but I hold it much preferable to the popularity of a day, which perishes with the transient topic upon which it is grounded.

The great problem of legislation is, so to organize the civil government of a community... that in the operation of human institutions upon social action, self-love and social may be made the same.

The extremes of opulence and of want are more remarkable, and more constantly obvious, in [Great Britain] than in any other place that I ever saw.

I have to study politics and war so that my sons can study mathematics, commerce and agriculture, so their sons can study poetry, painting and music.

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.

Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity!

All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

Not stones, nor wood, nor the art of artisans make a state; but where men are who know how to take care of themselves, these are cities and walls.