John Adams Quotes

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.

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

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

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.

Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.

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.

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

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

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

A government of laws, and not of men.

The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.

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.

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

As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my children.