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John Adams Quotes

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"As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my children."

"The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations."

"Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war."

"Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws."

"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."

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people."

"The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea."

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy."
War

"Fear is the foundation of most governments."

"Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty."

"Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society."

"The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries."

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

"I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate."

"When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more."

"While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill - little better understood, little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago."

"The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it."

"I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman."

"Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide."

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