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Quotes by John Adams


Fear is the foundation of most governments.
– John Adams
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.
– John Adams
Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
– 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.
– John Adams
Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.
– John Adams
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.
– John Adams
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.
– John Adams
Genius is sorrow's child.
– John Adams
Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
– John Adams
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.
– John Adams
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.
– John Adams
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.
– John Adams
I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.
– John Adams
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
– John Adams
If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?
– John Adams
In politics the middle way is none at all.
– 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
My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.
– John Adams
Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.
– John Adams
Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.
– John Adams
Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
– John Adams
Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.
– John Adams
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.
– John Adams
The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.
– John Adams
The happiness of society is the end of government.
– John Adams
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.
– John Adams
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.
– 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 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
Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity.
– 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
Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, ''that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.''
– John Adams
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
– John Adams
Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.
– John Adams
In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
– John Adams
The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.
– 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
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
– John Adams
Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.
– John Adams
Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
– John Adams
Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
– John Adams
A government of laws, and not of men.
– John Adams