John Adams Quotes, Status, and Thoughts

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

Always stand on principle even if you stand alone.

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

Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

We have no Constitution which functions in the absence of a moral people

When the legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.

Every problem is an opportunity in disguise.

He is too illiterate, unread, unlearned for his station and reputation.

The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.

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

Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.

Ideology is the science of idiots.

Power must never be trusted without a check.

My God, This is a revolution! We have to offend someone!

The true source of our sufferings has been our timidity.

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

Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

It is weakness rather than wickedness that renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.

Politics are a labyrinth without a clue.

A taste for literature and a business turn, united in the same person, never fails to make a great man.

No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.

Slavery is a foul contagion in the human character.

Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.

Elections to office, which are the great objects of ambition, I look at with terror!

If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?

Power in any Form . . ., when directed only by human Wisdom and Benevolence, is dangerous.

Had I been chosen President again, I am certain I could not have lived another year.

Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell.

We must not then depend alone upon the love of liberty in the soul of man for its preservation.

The National defence is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.

Let frugality and industry be our virtues.