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Quote by John Adams

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
John Adams

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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“Honor is truly sacred, but holds a lower rank in the scale of moral excellence than virtue. Indeed the former is part of the latter, and consequently has not equal pretensions to support a frame of government productive of human happiness.”

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow citizens.”

“Every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of society as great as he can. He generally neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. He intends only his own gain, and he is, in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was not part of his intention.”