John Adams Quotes
30 October 1735 – July 4, 1826
More John Adams Quotes
A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.
John Adams— Diary and Autobiography, 14 November 1760.
A government of laws, and not of men.
John Adams— 1774 In the Boston Gazette, no.7. The phrase was later incorporated into the Massachusetts Constitution (1780).
What a poor, ignorant, malicious, short-sighted, crapulous mass is Tom Paine's common sense.
John Adams— 1819 Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 22 Jun, referring to the Republican's treatise on independence entitled Common Sense.
I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.
John Adams— On the White House, in a letter to Abigail Adams (2 November 1800)
— Franklin D. Roosevelt had this inscribed on the mantlepiece of the State Dining Room.
My best wishes, in the joys, and festivities, and the solemn services of that day on which will be completed the fiftieth year from its birth, of the independence of the United States: a memorable epoch in the annals of the human race, destined in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be shaped by the human mind.
John Adams— Reply to an invitation to 50th Independence Day celebrations from a committee of the citizens of Quincy, Massachusetts (7 June 1826); quoted in "Eulogy, Pronounced at Bridgewater, Massachusetts" (1826-08-02) by John A. Shaw, in A Selection of Eulogies, Pronounced in the Several States, in Honor of Those Illustrious Patriots and Statesmen, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (1826)
I agree with you that in politics the middle way is none at all.
John Adams— 1776 Letter to Horatio Gates, 23 Mar.
There is something very unnatural and odious in a government a thousand leagues off. A whole government of our own choice, managed by persons whom we love, revere, and can confide in, has charms in it for which men will fight.
John Adams— Letter to Abigail Adams (17 May 1776)
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— On the decision to proclaim independence from British rule, which was made on 2 July 1776, in a letter to Abigail Adams (3 July 1776), published in The Adams Papers : Adams Family Correspondence (2007) edited by Margaret A. Hogan
There is nothing which I dread so much as a 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— Letter to Jonathan Jackson (2 October 1780), "The Works of John Adams", vol 9, p.511
The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a Theatrical Show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that; i.e. all the Glory of it.
John Adams— Letter to Benjamin Rush (21 June 1811); published in Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle (1892), p. 287; also quoted in TIME magazine (25 October 1943)
While all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago.
John Adams— Letter to Thomas Jefferson (9 July 1813)
You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other.
John Adams— Letter to Thomas Jefferson (15 July 1813)
As long as Property exists, it will accumulate in Individuals and Families. As long as Marriage exists, Knowledge, Property and Influence will accumulate in Families.
John Adams— Letter to Thomas Jefferson (16 July 1814)
Government has no right to hurt the hair of an Atheist for his Opinions. Let him have a care of his Practices.
John Adams— Letter to John Quincy Adams (16 June 1816). Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 432, Library of Congress. James H. Hutson (ed.), The Founders on Religion: A Book of Quotations. Princeton University Press, 2007, p. 20
Negro Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude and I am utterly averse to the admission of Slavery into the Missouri Territories.
John Adams— Letter to William Tudor, as quoted in Founding Brothers : The Revolutionary Generation (2000) by Joseph J. Ellis, p. 240
A natural and almost unavoidable consequence of that foul contagion in the human character — Negro slavery.
John Adams— Stating his belief in the reports of James T. Callender that Thomas Jefferson was the father of the children of Sally Hemmings, as quoted in Scandalmonger? (2001) by William Safire, p. 431
Major Greene this evening fell into some conversation with me about the Divinity and satisfaction of Jesus Christ. All the argument he advanced was, "that a mere creature or finite being could not make satisfaction to infinite justice for any crimes," and that "these things are very mysterious."Thus mystery is made a convenient cover for absurdity.
John Adams— Entry of 13 February 1756 in Charles Francis Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustrations vol. 2 (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1850) 4, Google Books, 13 Dec. 2010, web [2]
No man is entirely free from weakness and imperfection in this life. Men of the most exalted genius and active minds are generally most perfect slaves to the love of fame. They sometimes descend to as mean tricks and artifices in pursuit of honor or reputation as the miser descends to in pursuit of gold.
John Adams— (19 February 1756)
Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.
John Adams— No. 3 (Novanglus essays (1774–1775))
A government of laws, and not of men.
John Adams— No. 7; this was incorporated into the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780
Metaphysicians and politicians may dispute forever, but they will never find any other moral principle or foundation of rule or obedience, than the consent of governors and governed.
John Adams— No. 7 (Novanglus essays (1774–1775))
The rich, the well-born, and the able, acquire an influence among the people that will soon be too much for simple honesty and plain sense, in a house of representatives. The most illustrious of them must, therefore, be separated from the mass, and placed by themselves in a senate; this is, to all honest and useful intents, an ostracism.
John Adams— Vol. I, Preface, p. xi
Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.
John Adams— Ch. 3 Marchamont Nedham : Errors of Government and Rules of Policy" Seventh Rule
I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!
John Adams— John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson (September 3, 1816). Published in Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams (UNC Press, 1988), p. 488.
The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity.
John Adams— John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson. Published in The Quotable John Adams (Globe Pequot, 2008), p. 185ff.
The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own.
John Adams— John Adams, First Address to Congress (November 23, 1797).
Fear is the foundation of most governments.
John Adams— John Adams, Thoughts on Government (1776).
You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.
John Adams— Letter to John Quincy Adams (14 May 1781).
