Quotes from John Quincy Adams

The Bible carries with it the history of the creation, the fall and redemption of man, and discloses to him, in the infant born at Bethlehem, the Legislator and Savior of the world.

The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.

From the day of the Declaration, the people of the North American union, and of its constituent states, were associated bodies of civilized men and Christians, in a state of nature, but not of anarchy.

The Declaration of Independence pronounced the irrevocable decree of political separation, between the United States and their people on the one part, and the British king, government, and nation on the other.

It is of no use to discover our own faults and infirmities unless the discovery prompts up to amendment.

I say women exhibit the most exalted virtue when they depart from the domestic circle and enter on the concerns of their country, of humanity, and of their G-d!

I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.

The public history of all countries, and all ages, is but a sort of mask, richly colored. The interior working of the machinery must be foul.

To read the Bible is of itself a laudable occupation and can scarcely fail of being a useful employment of time; but the habit of reflecting upon what you have read is equally essential as than of reading itself, to give it all the efficacy of which it is susceptible.

In order to preserve the dominion of our own passions, it behooves us to be constantly and strictly on our guard against the influence and infection of the passions of others.

The more you meditate on the laws of Moses, the more striking and brighter does their wisdom appear.

It is among the evils of slavery that it taints the very sources of moral principle. It establishes false estimates of virtue and vice: for what can be more false and heartless than this doctrine which makes the first and holiest rights of humanity to depend upon the color of the skin?

The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived.

The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.

America is a friend of freedom everywhere, but a custodian only of our own.

The conflict between the principle of liberty and the fact of slavery is coming gradually to an issue. Slavery has now the power, and falls into convulsions at the approach of freedom.

Whoever tells the best story wins.

From the experience of the past we derive instructive lessons for the future.