John AdamsThe whole drama of the world is such tragedy that I am weary of the spectacle. ✨ John Adams (1841). Letters of John Adams: Addressed to His Wife, p.127371Politics
John AdamsThe jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing. ✨ A Dissertation on… ▶371PoliticsThought
John AdamsThe essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries. ✨ John Adams (2001). The Political Writings of John Adams, p.361, Regnery Publishing371Politics
John AdamsThere 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. ✨ 'Notes for an Oration at Br… ▶375LifePoliticsThought
John AdamsYou will ever remember that all the end of study is to make you a good man and a useful citizen.365Hope
John AdamsFacts 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 les… ▶344LifeLovePolitics
John AdamsHere 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. <… ▶334Reading
John AdamsThere are persons whom in my heart I despise, others I abhor. Yet I am not obliged to inform the one of my contempt, nor the other of my detestation. This kind of dissimulation...… ▶301LovePhilosophy
John AdamsLet us dare to read, think, speak and write. ✨ John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003). The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections, p.18, Hackett Publish… ▶324PoliticsReadingThought
John AdamsAll 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 downr… ▶291Thought
John AdamsLet the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it. ✨ John Adams: Quotes & Facts. Book by Blago Kirov, 2016.369HumanityReadingThought
John AdamsAdmire and adore the Author of the telescopic universe, love and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen ill, and increase good, but never assume to comprehend.314LovePolitics
John AdamsLiberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power. ✨ John Adams, George A. Peek, Jr. (2003).… ▶303PhilosophyPoliticsThought
John AdamsFear is the foundation of most governments. ✨ 'Thoughts on Government' (1776)336PoliticsThought
John AdamsPower always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. ✨ John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson (1959). The Adams-Jefferson Letters: T… ▶3710PoliticsThought
John AdamsThe way to secure liberty is to place it in the people's hands, that is, to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and in the courts of justice. ✨ … ▶304HumanityPoliticsTime
John AdamsChildren should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. ✨ John Adams (1851). The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of … ▶271LifePolitics
John AdamsIn politics the middle way is none at all. ✨ Letter to Horatio Gates, 23 March 1776326Politics
John AdamsBut I must submit all my Hopes and Fears, to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the Faith may be, I firmly believe. ✨ Abigail Adams, John Adams, L. H. Butt… ▶327HopeReading
John AdamsWe have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strong… ▶305HumanityLifeLove
John AdamsI wish I could lay down beside her and die too.338Death
John AdamsAnd liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people who have a right from the frame of their nature to knowledge, as their great Creator who does nothing … ▶328HumanityReading
John AdamsI read my Eyes out, and cant read half enough neither. The more one reads the more one sees We have to read. ✨ Letter to Abigail Adams, www.masshist.org. December 28, 1794.<… ▶251Reading
John AdamsThis would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it. ✨ John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson (1988). The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Comple… ▶3410Humanity
John AdamsBecause power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases. ✨ I’ll Vote for That by Katharine Ros… ▶295HumanityPolitics
John AdamsIt should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them… ▶307HumanityThought
John AdamsWhen 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 … ▶296HopeHumanityHumor
John AdamsBut all provisions that He (God) has made for the gratification of our senses…are much inferior to the provision, the wonderful provision that He has made for the gratification of… ▶253LifePoliticsTruth
John AdamsA government of laws, and not of men. ✨ Novanglus Papers no. 7 (1774). Almost certainly derived from James Harrington, but Adams's use of the phrase gave it wide circulation… ▶319Politics
John AdamsI must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. ✨ John Adams (2003). The Letters of John and Abigail Adams, p.264, Penguin308PhilosophyPolitics
