Home / Quotes / Quote by Samuel Adams

Quote by Samuel Adams

“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”

Quote by Samuel Adams

Author

Samuel Adams was a prominent figure during the American Revolutionary War and is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Born on September 27, 1722, and died on October 2, 1803, Adams played a crucial role in the American independence movement. He was a political leader in the Massachusetts colony and one of the drafters of the United States Constitution. more

You May Also Like

“If Men are so wicked as we now see them with Religion what would they be if without it?”

Ifs Men Human Nature Wicked

Book:The Political Thought of Benjamin Franklin

Source: The Political Thought of Benjamin Franklin

“But the mere circumstance of complexion cannot deprive them of the character of men.”

Men Character Human Nature Circumstances Mere Complexion Character Of A Man

Book:Selected Writings of James Madison

Source: Selected Writings of James Madison

“In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature.”

May Said States Form Human Nature Stronger Anarchy Reign Factions Tyranny Of The Majority

Book:The Federalist Papers: The Making of the US Constitution

Source: The Federalist Papers: The Making of the US Constitution

“In the discharge of this trust I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed toward the organization and administration of the Government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable.”

Government Human Nature Judgment Capable Organization Intention Administration Good Intentions Exertion Discharge

Book:Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America

Source: Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America

“It is a misfortune, inseparable from human affairs, that public measures are rarely investigated with that spirit of moderation which is essential to a just estimate of their real tendency to advance or obstruct the public good; and that this spirit is more apt to be diminished than prompted, by those occasions which require an unusual exercise of it.”

Humans Real Spirit Human Nature Exercise Essentials Affair Tendencies Occasions Misfortunes Unusual Moderation Inseparable Public Good

Book:The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus

Source: The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus

“There is in every breast a sensibility to marks of honor, of favor, of esteem, and of confidence, which, apart from all considerations of interest, is some pledge for grateful and benevolent returns. Ingratitude is a common topic of declamation against human nature; and it must be confessed, that instances of it are but too infrequent and flagrant both in public and in private life. But the universal and extreme indignation which it inspires, is itself a proof of the energy and prevalence of the contrary sentiment.”

Source: The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution

“That experience is the parent of wisdom is an adage the truth of which is recognized by the wisest as well as the simplest of mankind.”

Wells Parent Mankind Human Nature Simplest Adages Wisest

Book:The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers

Source: The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers

“The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue which would make it wise in a nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind as those which concern its intercourse with the rest of the world, to the sole disposal of a magistrate, created and circumstanced, as would be a president of the United States.”

Source: The Federalist on the New Constitution

“I shall not fear to say that the doctrine of self-interest rightly understood seems to me of all the philosophic theories the most appropriate to the needs of men in our time, and that I see in it the most powerful guarantee against themselves that remains to them. The minds of the moralists of our day ought to turn, therefore, principally toward it. Even should they judge it imperfect, they would still have to adopt it as necessary.”

“To look for a continuation in harmony between a number of independent unconnected sovereignties, situated in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience of ages.”

Humans Looks Would Be Age Courses Numbers Events Human Nature Harmony Independent Neighborhood Uniforms Sovereignty Defiance Disregard Continuation

Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

Source: The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788