The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

My Favorite Quotes of John Adams

John Adams Jr. (October 30, 1735[a] – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain, and he served as the first vice president of the United States. Adams was a dedicated diarist and regularly corresponded with many important figures in early American history, including his wife and adviser Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson.”

A lawyer and political activist prior to the revolution, Adams was devoted to the right to counsel and presumption of innocence. He defied anti-British sentiment and successfully defended British soldiers against murder charges arising from the Boston Massacre. Adams was a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress and became a leader of the revolution. He assisted in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776. As a diplomat in Europe, he helped negotiate a peace treaty with Great Britain and secured vital governmental loans. Adams was the primary author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, which influenced the United States constitution, as did his essay Thoughts on Government.

Many of his quotes on society and government are apropos to America today. These are some of my favorites:

“A government of laws, and not of men.”
  - John Adams

“Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.”
  - John Adams

“All 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 downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.”
  - John Adams

“Always stand on principle….even if you stand alone.”
  - John Adams

“Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.”
  - John Adams

“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
  - John Adams

“…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.”
  - John Adams

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
 - John Adams

“Fear is the foundation of most governments.”
  - John Adams

“Human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.”
  - John Adams

“I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them.”
  - John Adams

“I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading.”
  - John Adams

“In politics the middle way is none at all.”
  - John Adams

“Let us tenderly and kindly cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.”
  - John Adams

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

“Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.”
  - John Adams

“Public business, my son, must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise men decline it, others will not; if honest men refuse it, others will not.”
  - John Adams

“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

“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

“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
  - John Adams

“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. This is enough.”
  - John Adams

“There are two types of education… One should teach us how to make a living, and the other how to live.”
  - John Adams

“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.”
  - John Adams

“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

“To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.”
  - John Adams

“To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.”
  - John Adams

“Tyranny can scarcely be practiced upon a virtuous and wise people.”
  - John Adams

“Virtue is not always amiable.”
  - John Adams

“We cannot insure success, but we can deserve it.”
  - John Adams

“What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people.”
  - John Adams

“When legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.”
  - John Adams

“You will ever remember that all the end of study is to make you a good man and a useful citizen.”
  - John Adams