John Adams

President

1735-10-30

Books by John Adams

The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies ...: In Two Volumes
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An inquiry into the original of our ideas of beauty and virtue
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Quotes by John Adams

Genius is sorrow's child.
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Here 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.
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Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.
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The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it.
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While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill - little better understood, little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago.
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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.
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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.
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I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
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I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.
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Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.
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Facts 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.
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Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.
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I, poor creature, worn out with scribbling for my bread and my liberty, low in spirits and weak in health, must leave others to wear the laurels which I have sown, others to eat the bread which I have earned. A common case.
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The ten commandments and the sermon on the mount contain my religion.
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Education makes a greater difference between man and man than nature has made between man and brute.
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Genius is sorrows child.
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As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it.
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The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.
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The divine science of government is the science of social happiness, and the blessings of society depend entirely on the constitutions of government.
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This wasted time I have found by constant experience to be as indispensable as sleep. It cannot be employed in reading, nor even in thinking upon any serious subject. It must be wasted on trifles-doing nothing. The string of the bow must be slackened, and the bow itself laid aside.
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