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John Quincy Adams Quotes

6th U.S. President

John Quincy Adams was the 6th President of the United States, born on July 11, 1767, and died on February 28, 1848. He was a prominent statesman, diplomat, and scholar, known for his extensive knowledge and political experience.

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Famous John Quincy Adams Quotes

“The conflict between the principle of liberty and the fact of slavery is coming gradually to an issue. Slavery has now the power, and falls into convulsions at the approach of freedom. That the fall of slavery is predetermined in the counsels of Omnipotence I cannot doubt; it is a part of the great moral improvement in the condition of man, attested by all the records of history. But the conflict will be terrible, and the progress of improvement perhaps retrograde before its final progress to consummation.”

Source: Memoirs of John Quincy Adams: Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848

“Religion, charity, pure benevolence, and morals, mingled up with superstitious rites and ferocious cruelty, form in their combination institutions the most powerful and the most pernicious that have ever afflicted mankind.”

Form Powerful Moral Mankind Pure Institutions Charity Cruelty Combination Most Powerful Benevolence Superstitious Rite Pernicious

Book:John Quincy Adams: Diaries 1821-1848

Source: John Quincy Adams: Diaries 1821-1848

“While dwelling with pleasing satisfaction upon the superior excellence of our political institutions, let us not be unmindful that liberty is power; that the nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty must in proportion to its numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth, and that the tenure of power by man is, in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon condition that it shall be exercised to ends of beneficence, to improve the condition of himself and his fellow men.”

Source: John Quincy Adams and American continental empire: letters, papers and speeches

“Our political way of life is by the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God, and of course presupposes the existence of God, the moral ruler of the universe, and a rule of right and wrong, of just and unjust, binding upon man, preceding all institutions of human society and government.”

Men Way Humans Government Law Political Life Is Universe Courses Existence Moral Institutions Rulers Unjust Laws Of Nature Human Society Binding Existence Of God

Author:John Quincy Adams

“I do conscientiously and sincerely believe that the Order of Freemasonry, if not the greatest, is one of the greatest moral and political evils under which the Union is now laboring ... a conspiracy of the few against the equal rights of the many ...Masonry ought forever to be abolished. It is wrong - essentially wrong - a seed of evil, which can never produce any good.”

Ifs Believe Political Order Evil Moral Forever Rights Produce Ought Equal Unions Seeds Conspiracy Sincerely Equal Rights Masonry Freemasonry

Author:John Quincy Adams

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people... it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

“The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code; it contained many statutes . . . of universal application-laws essential to the existence of men in society, and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws.”

Men Wells Has Beens Government Law Religion Given Nations Religious Existence Moral Morality Essentials Universal Code Application Statutes Sinai

Book:Letters of John Quincy Adams, to His Son, on the Bible and Its Teachings

Source: Letters of John Quincy Adams, to His Son, on the Bible and Its Teachings

“The Law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code.”

Wells Law Given Religious Moral Ten Code Commandments Ten Commandments Sinai

Author:John Quincy Adams

“Whenever vanity and gaiety, a love of pomp and dress, furniture, equipage, buildings, great company, expensive diversions, and elegant entertainments get the better of the principles and judgments of men and women, there is no knowing where they will stop, nor into what evils, natural, moral, or political, they will lead us.”

Men Political Evil Natural Company Moral Principles Knowing Building Judgment Men And Women Dresses Entertainment Vanity Expensive Elegant Furniture Diversion Great Company Gaiety

Author:John Quincy Adams