Quotes by John Adams

"A government of laws and not of men."

"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."

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

"In politics the middle way is none at all."

"My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."

"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."

"A government of laws, and not of men."

"The happiness of society is the end of government."

"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."

"The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries."

"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."

"Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people."

"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."

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

"Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases."

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it."

"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."

"Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order."

"Old minds are like old horses you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order."

"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 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."

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

"I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman."

"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."

"Fear is the foundation of most governments."

"Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war."

"Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws."

"Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write."

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."