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John Adams

John Adams Quotes

2nd U.S. President

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Famous John Adams Quotes

“The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.”

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Author:John Adams
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“I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.”

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Author:John Adams
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“The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.”

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Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?”

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Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell.”

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Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.”

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Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity.”

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Author:John Adams
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“The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?”

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Book:The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams
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“I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved - the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!”

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Author:John Adams
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“What havoc has been made of books through every century of the Christian era? Where are fifty gospels, condemned as spurious by the bull of Pope Gelasius? Where are the forty wagon-loads of Hebrew manuscripts burned in France, by order of another pope, because suspected of heresy? Remember the 'index expurgatorius', the inquisition, the stake, the axe, the halter and the guillotine.”

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Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?”

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Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“The human understanding is a revelation from its maker, which can never be disputed or doubted. There can be no scepticism, Pyrrhonism, or incredulity or infidelity here. No prophecies, no miracles are necessary to prove this celestical communication. This revelation has made it certain that two and one make three, and that one is not three nor can three be one. We can never be so certain of any prophecy, or the fulfilment of any prophecy, or of any miracle, or the design of any miracle, as we are from the revelation of nature, that is, nature's God, that two and two are equal to four.”

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Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“Twenty times, in the course of my late reading, have I been on the point of breaking out, 'this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!' But in this exclamation, I should have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in public company-I mean hell.”

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Book:John Adams: a biography in his own words
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“We should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions shall enjoy equal liberty, property, and an equal chance for honors and power we may expect that improvements will be made in the human character and the state of society.”

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Book:The Works of John Adams Vol. 8: Letters and State Papers 1782 - 1799
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“. . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.”

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Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“The ten commandments and the sermon on the mount contain my religion.”

ChristianityTenCommandmentsSermonsFounding Fathers ChristianTen CommandmentsFounding Fathers ReligionSermon On The MountRevolution Founding FathersCode Of Ethics
Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

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Book:Works: with a life of the author
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“As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, - as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, - and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

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Author:John Adams
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“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”

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Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.”

IfsWorldWould BeReligionReligiousLibertyAtheismAtheistBeing The BestDelusionInsightfulFoundersSecularAgnosticFoundingChurch And StateFreedom And LibertySeparation Of Church And StateFreedom LibertyOur Founding FathersReligious FreedomFounding Fathers ChristianUs Founding FathersFounding Fathers ReligionSeparation Between Church And StateFounding Fathers ReligiousIf There Is A GodReligion GodReligious LibertyFounding Fathers Anti ReligionFounding Fathers Of AmericaFounding AmericaAmerican Founding FathersFounding Fathers AtheistAnti ReligiousDeismThere Being No GodChristianity From Founding FathersChristian AtheistReligion ChristianChristian FatherChristian HeritageAmerican LibertyReligion And GovernmentAnti ChristianChristian RightAgainst ReligionAnti ReligionGod DelusionFaith ReligionRevolution Founding FathersReligion In SocietyChristian GodGreatest AtheistFree Thinkers
Book:The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams
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