John Adams Quotes

• One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress.

  John Adams

  Men, Law, Two

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

  John Adams

  Bible, God, Religious

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “Works: with a life of the author”, p.229

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• There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.

  John Adams

  Country, Two, Debt

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• Always stand on principle even if you stand alone.

  John Adams

  Principles, Politics, Stand Alone

  "Who is Bernie Sanders?" by Tom Pappalardo, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 28, 2015.

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• There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution.

  John Adams

  Party, Humble, Government

  John Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.511

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• Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.

  John Adams

  Men, Class, Safety

  John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). “The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections”, p.97, Hackett Publishing

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  But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

  John Adams

  Government, Presidential, Forever

  John Adams (2012). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.76, Simon and Schuster

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

  John Adams

  Peace, War, Thinking

  John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson (1959). “The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. 1812-1826”

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

  John Adams

  Suicide, Freedom, Suicidal

  Letter from John Adams to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

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• The destiny of America is to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to all men everywhere.

  John Adams

  Bible, Jesus, Destiny

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• When economic power became concentrated in a few hands, then political power flowed to those possessors and away from the citizens, ultimately resulting in an oligarchy or tyranny.

  John Adams

  Hands, Political, Citizens

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• Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

  John Adams

  Liberty, Libertarian, Pro Gun

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• The right of a nation to kill a tyrant, in cases of necessity, can no more be doubted, than to hang a robber, or kill a flea. But killing one tyrant only makes way for worse, unless the people have sense, spirit and honesty enough to establish and support a constitution guarded at all points against the tyranny of the one, the few, and the many.

  John Adams

  Honesty, Tyrants, People

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila”, p.110, Jazzybee Verlag

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• We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!

  John Adams

  Bible, God, Religious

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• Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.

  John Adams

  Moving, Soul, Independence

  John Adams, Daniel LEONARD, Jonathan SEWALL (1819). “Novanglus and Massachusettensis; or, political essays, published in ... 1774 and 1775, on the principal points of controversy, between Great Britain and her colonies; the former by John Adams ... the latter by Jonathan Sewall [or rather, Daniel Leonard] ... To which are added a number of letters lately written by President Adams to the Hon. William Tudor, etc”, p.25

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• But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations ... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.

  John Adams

  Religious, Real, War

  Letter to Hezekiah Niles, 13 Feb. 1818

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• We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our Liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good.

  John Adams

  Party, Independent, Government

  John Adams' Inaugural Address, avalon.law.yale.edu. March 4, 1797.

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• Every problem is an opportunity in disguise.

  John Adams

  Opportunity, Problem, Disguise

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• The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly [with your God]. This is enough.

  John Adams

  Thinking, Mercy, Enough

  "3 Biblical Tips to Stay Sane in Our Overloaded World" by Levi Ben-Shmuel, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 22, 2014.

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• 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: nor is the law less stable than the fact.

  John Adams

  Passion, Patriotic, Law

  John Adams (1971). “The Works [of] John Adams, Second President of the United States: Life of John Adams”

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• To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.

  John Adams

  Volunteer, Virtue, Be Good

  "What The Founding Fathers Said About Success Will Change Your Approach To Life", www.huffingtonpost.com. September 17, 2013.

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• Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.

  John Adams

  Names, Hypocrisy, Suffering

  "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law" by John Adams, teachingamericanhistory.org. 1765.

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• [L]iberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.

  John Adams

  Freedom, Father, Blood

  Joseph E. SPRAGUE, John Adams (1826). “An Eulogy on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, etc”, p.36

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• 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

  Inspirational, Trust, Freedom

  'Notes for an Oration at Braintree' (Spring 1772)

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• ...Cities may be rebuilt, and a People reduced to Poverty, may acquire fresh Property: But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrendered their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.

  John Adams

  Government, Cities, People

  John Adams (2003). “The Letters of John and Abigail Adams”, p.50, Penguin

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