|
John Adams Quotes
These John Adams Quotes are from his own speeches, writings and letters.
Adams was one of the patriot leaders of the Revolutionary War and the
second President of the United States of America. These John Adams
Quotes are listed in chronological order and there are links to more
at the bottom.
|
John Adams |
|
John Adams Quotes
"I have had many Opportunities, in the Course of this journey, to observe,
how deeply rooted, our righteous Cause is in the Minds of the People --
and could write you many Anecdotes in Proof of it. But I will reserve
them for private Conversation. But on 2d Thoughts why should I? One
Evening, as I sat in one Room, I overheard Company of the Common
sort of People in another, conversing upon serious subjects. One of
them, whom I afterwards found upon Enquiry to be a reputable, religious
Man, was more eloquent than the rest-he was upon the Danger of despizing
and neglecting serious Things. Said whatever Person or People made light
of them would soon find themselves terribly mistaken. At length I heard
these Words -- "it appears to me the eternal son of God is opperating
Powerfully against the British Nation for their treating lightly
serious Things." One Morning, I asked my Landlady what I had to pay?
Nothing she said -- "I was welcome, and she hoped I would always make
her House my Home, and she should be happy to entertain all those
Gentlemen who had been raised up by Providence to be the Saviours
of their Country." This was flattering enough to my vain Heart.
But it made a greater Impression on me, as a Proof, how deeply
this Cause had sunk into the Minds and Hearts of the People. --
In short every Thing I see and hear, indicates the same Thing."
- Letter to Abigail Adams, December 15, 1777
"In vain are Schools, Academies, and Universities instituted, if
loose Principles and licentious habits are impressed upon Children
in their earliest years... The Vices and Examples of the Parents
cannot be concealed from the children. How is it possible that
Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of
Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn
their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and
their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?"
- Diary Entry, June 2, 1778
"The foundation of national morality must be laid in private
families... How is it possible that Children can have any just
Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from
their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual
Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant
Infidelity to their Mothers?" - Diary, June 2, 1778
"The idea of infidelity (disbelief in the God inspired nature of
Christianity) cannot be treated with too much resentment or too
much horror. The man who can think of it with patience is a traitor
in his heart and ought to be execrated as one who adds the deepest
hypocrisy to the blackest treason." - Letter to James Warren,
August 4, 1778
"Virtue is not always amiable." - Diary entry, February 9,
1779
Read on for more great
John Adams Quotes
John Adams
Presidential Coin
"By my physical constitution I am but an ordinary man... Yet some great
events, some cutting expressions, some mean hypocracies, have at times
thrown this assemblage of sloth, sleep, and littleness into rage like a
lion." - Diary entry, April 26, 1779
"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study
mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and
philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation,
commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to
study painting, poetry, music architecture, statuary, tapestry, and
porcelain." - Letter to Abigail Adams, May 12, 1780
"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." - Constitution
of Massachusetts, Declaration of Rights, 1780
"You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket." - Letter to
John Quincy Adams, May 14, 1781
"It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an empire of
liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen,
without one noble or one king among them. You say it is impossible. If
I should agree with you in this, I would still say, let us try the
experiment, and preserve our equality as long as we can. A better
system of education for the common people might preserve them long
from such artificial inequalities as are prejudicial to society, by
confounding the natural distinctions of right and wrong, virtue and
vice." - Letter to Count Sarsfield, February 3, 1786
Read on for more
John Adams Quotes
"All the perplexities, confusions, and distresses in America arise,
not from defects in their constitution or confederation, not from a
want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the
nature of coin, credit, and circulation." - Letter to Thomas
Jefferson, August 25, 1787
"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not
as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law
and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If
Thou shalt not covet' and `Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments
of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before
it can be civilized or made free." - A Defense of the Constitutions
of Government of the United States of America, 1787
"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."
- A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United
States of America, Vol. 1, Preface, p. xi, 1787
"Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom."
- A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States
of America, 1787
"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." - A Defense of the Constitution of the Government
of the United States of America, 1787
Need some more John Adams
Quotes? Read on!
"To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual
discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of
towns, counties or districts of a state, is to demolish every
constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be
enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The
fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed
and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws."
- A Defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the United
States of America, 1787-1788
"The deliberate union of so great and various a people in such a
place, is without all partiality or prejudice, if not the greatest
exertion of human understanding, the greatest single effort of national
deliberation that the world has ever seen." - Quoted in a letter
from Rufus King to Theophilus Parsons, February 20, 1788
"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."
- Letter to Jonathan Jackson, October 2, 1789
"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." - Discourses on Davila,
No. 4, 1790-1791
"The world grows more enlightened. Knowledge is more equally diffused.
Newspapers, magazines, and circulating libraries have made mankind wiser.
Titles and distinctions, ranks and orders, parade and ceremony, are all
going out of fashion." - Discourses on Davila, No. 13, 1790-1791
"This is roundly and frequently asserted in the streets, and sometimes
on theatres of higher rank. Some truth there is in it; and if the
opportunity were temperately improved, to the reformation of abuses,
the rectification of errors, and the dissipation of pernicious prejudices,
a great advantage it might be. But, on the other hand, false inferences
may be drawn from it, which may make mankind wish for the age of dragons,
giants, and fairies." - Discourses on Davila, No. 13, 1790-1791
You can visit John and Abigail's home today. It is managed by the
National Park Service and has lots of memorabilia and history to absorb.
Visit the Adams'
Home website here.
We have lots more John Adams Quotes for you!
Go to John Adams Quotes page 1
Go to John Adams Quotes page 2
Go to John Adams Quotes page 3
Go to John Adams Quotes page 4
Go to John Adams Quotes page 6
Go to John Adams Quotes page 7
Go to John Adams Quotes page 8
Did you enjoy these John Adams Quotes? Check out these inspirational
quotations from some other Founding Fathers
|
|
