I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth. - John Adams
Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives. - 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
Jefferson still survivies. - John Adams
Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. - John Adams
Thomas Jefferson still lives. - John Adams
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. - John Adams
Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty but it is religion and morality alone that can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. - John Adams
Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order. - John Adams
...a revolution of government is the strongest proof that can be given by a people of their virtue and good sense. - John Adams
No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it. - John Adams
Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide. - John Adams
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. - John Adams
All the perplexities, confusions, 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
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
You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket. - John Adams
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. - John Adams