John Adams

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.

The happiness of society is the end of government.

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.

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.

The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.

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.

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.

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.

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

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.

Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.

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.

A government of laws, and not of men.

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

Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.

Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.

I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.

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