Quotes from John Adams

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.

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.

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.

We must not then depend alone upon the love of liberty in the soul of man for its preservation.

I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation.

Did you ever see a portrait of a great man without perceiving strong traits of pain and anxiety?

Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.

The happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.

I Pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on this house, and on ALL that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof!

The universal object and idol of men of letters is reputation.

To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.

Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart

Public business must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise man decline, others will not; if honest man refuse it, others will not.

No good government but what is republican... the very definition of a republic is 'an empire of laws, and not of men.'

This oration will be read five hundred years hence with as much rapture as it was heard. It ought to be read at the end of every century, and indeed at the end of every year, forever and ever.

It already appears, that there must be in every society of men superiors and inferiors, because God has laid in the constitution and course of nature the foundations of the distinction.

[I] never understood [what a republican government was and] I believe no other man ever did or ever will.

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?

The only way to form an army to be confided in, was a systematic discipline, by which means all men may be made heroes.

Education makes a greater difference between man and man than nature has made between man and brute.

Where annual elections end, there slavery begins ... Humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.

Swim or sink live or die survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination.

Always stand on principle even if you stand alone.

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.