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Quote by John Adams

“Will you tell me how to prevent riches from producing luxury? Will you tell me how to prevent luxury from producing effeminacy, intoxication, extravagance, vice and folly?”

Quote by John Adams

Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

Work

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

This volume includes a wide array of John Adams's personal and professional correspondence, political writings, and other documents. It also features a detailed biography of Adams, providing insight into his life and times. The book is further enhanced with notes and illustrations that offer context and analysis of Adams's work. more

Author

John Adams, the second President of the United States, was a statesman, diplomat, and writer. Born on October 30, 1735, and died on July 4, 1826, Adams played a significant role in the American Revolutionary War. He was one of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and served as the President from 1789 to 1797. more

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“The Character which a youth acquires in the early part of his Life is of great importance towards his future prosperity-one false step may prove irretrievable to his future usefulness.”

May Character Life Is Steps Virtue Youth Prove Importance Prosperity Acquire Usefulness Future Prosperity

Author:Abigail Adams

“Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all divines and moral philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow that the form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest numbers of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best. All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.”

Source: The Works of John Adams: Controversial papers of the Revolution (continued) Works on government

“Human government is more or less perfect as it approaches nearer or diverges farther from the imitation of this perfect plan of divine and moral government.”

Humans Government Perfect Moral Plans Divine Approach Imitation

Book:Diary and Autobiography: Diary, 1755-1770

Source: Diary and Autobiography: Diary, 1755-1770

“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? Or, in other words, whether authority is originally in the People? Or whether it has descended for 1800 Years in a succession of Popes and Bishops, or brought down from Heaven by the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove, in a Phial of holy Oil?”

Source: The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams

“If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?”

Ifs Men Government Form Principles Virtue Foundation Acknowledge Sober Forms Of Government

Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

Source: The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations

“Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.”

Men Government Political Passion Stupid Institutions Foundation Miserable Breasts Brutal Political Institutions

Book:The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections

Source: The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections

“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.”

People Men Government Interest Common Class Honor Safety Profit Prosperity Protection Reform One Man Institute Common Good

Book:The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections

Source: The Political Writings of John Adams: Representative Selections

“We must not then depend alone upon the love of liberty in the soul of man for its preservation.”

Men Soul Government Liberty Depends Preservation

Book:John Adams: Writings from the New Nation, 1784-1826

Source: John Adams: Writings from the New Nation, 1784-1826

“It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them. You say it is impossible. If I should agree with you in this, I would still say, let us try the experiment, and preserve our equality as long as we can. A better system of education for the common people might preserve them long from such artificial inequalities as are prejudicial to society, by confounding the natural distinctions of right and wrong, virtue and vice.”

Source: Works: with a life of the author

“[T]he liberty, the unalienable, indefeasible rights of men, the honor and dignity of human nature, the grandeur and glory of the public, and the universal happiness of individuals, were never so skillfully and successfully consulted as in that most excellent monument of human art, the common law of England.”

Source: The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations