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John Adams

John Adams Quotes

2nd U.S. President

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Famous John Adams Quotes

“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.”

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Author:John Adams
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“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.”

EarthAmericaLibertyWonderMankindDesignSceneIndependenceIgnorantOpeningPatrioticReverenceProvidenceFounding4th Of JulyIlluminationEmancipationOur Founding FathersSettlementUs Founding FathersForefathersUs Independence Day
Book:The Portable John Adams
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“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

GovernmentLostLibertyForeverChangedConstitutionPresidentialPatriotFoundingFreedom And LibertyFreedom Of ThoughtFreedom LibertyOur Founding FathersUs Founding FathersForefathersFounding AmericaEncroachmentUs ConstitutionAmerican PatriotismAmerican LibertyAmerican PatriotGovernment And SocietyPatriotism And Freedom
Book:The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
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“Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.”

ShouldChildrenFreedomLibertyPrinciplesDemocracyEducatedPatrioticFoundingFreedom And LibertyFreedom Of ThoughtFreedom LibertyOur Founding FathersPublic EducationAmerican LibertyRevolution Founding FathersAmerican FreedomEducation And Freedom
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 must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine. (12 May 1780)”

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Author:John Adams
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“The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people's hands, that is, to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and in the courts of justice.”

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Book:The Works of John Adams Vol. 6: Defence of the Constitution IV, Discourses on Davila
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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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“...Cities may be rebuilt, and a People reduced to Poverty, may acquire fresh Property: But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever. When the People once surrendered their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it.”

PeopleMayGovernmentLostCitiesLibertyPovertyForeverShareChangedConstitutionPropertyLimitationAcquireLegislatureResistingEncroachment
Book:The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
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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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“[L]iberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.”

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Book:An Eulogy on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, etc
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“And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people who have a right from the frame of their nature to knowledge, as their great Creator who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings and a desire to know. But besides this they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible divine right to the most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers.”

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Book:The Portable John Adams
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