“Every problem is an opportunity in disguise.”
— John Adams
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”
“Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.”
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
“One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress.”
“To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.”
“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.”
“Let us tenderly and kindly cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write .”
“I would quarrel with both parties, and with every individual of each, before I would subjugate my understanding, or prostitute my tongue or pen to either.”
“Ideology is the science of idiots.”
“Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.”
“Those who trade liberty for security have neither.”
“The happiness of society is the end of government.”
“Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”
“Posterity! you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.”
“The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.”
“I must study war and politics so that my children shall be free to study commerce, agriculture and other practicalities, so that their children can study painting, poetry and other fine things.”
“We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!”
“To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.”
“We have no Constitution which functions in the absence of a moral people.”
“Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.”
“I am a revolutionary, so my son can be a farmer, so his son can be a poet.”
“There are only two creatures of value on the face of the earth: those with the commitment, and those who require the commitment of others.”
“Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
“I had heard my father say that he never knew a piece of land run away or break.”
“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.”
“Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.”
“There is no greater guilt than the unneccessary war.”
“We cannot insure success, but we can deserve it.”
“People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity.”
“Thanks to God that he gave me stubborness when I know I am right.”
“Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination.”
“It’s of more importance to community that innocence should be protected than it is that guilt should be punished.”
“Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. What a Utopia! What a paradise this region would be.”
“We are in the the very midst of a revolution, the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.”
“If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?”
“Ambition is one of the ungovernable passions of the human heart. The love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable.”
“Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.”
“Power must never be trusted without a check.”
“Property monopolized or in the possession of a few is a curse to mankind.”
“Have you considered that system of holy lies and pious frauds that has raged and triumphed for 1,500 years?”
“I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them.”
“I would define liberty to be a power to do as we would be done by. The definition of liberty to be the power of doing whatever the law permits, meaning the civil laws, does not seem satisfactory.”
“But America is a great, unwieldy Body. Its Progress must be slow. It is like a large Fleet sailing under Convoy. The fleetest Sailors must wait for the dullest and slowest. Like a Coach and six-the swiftest Horses must be slackened and the slowest quickened, that all may keep an even Pace.”
“The ten commandments and the sermon on the mount contain my religion.”
“Banks have done more injury to the religion, morality, tranquility, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they can have done or ever will do good.”
“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity.”
“When public virtue is gone, when the national spirit is fled the republic is lost in essence, though it may still exist in form.”
“Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.”
“There is something very unnatural and odious in a government a thousand leagues off. A whole government of our own choice, managed by persons whom we love, revere, and can confide in, has charms in it for which men will fight.”
“A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
“Did you ever see a portrait of a great man without perceiving strong traits of pain and anxiety?”
“Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell.”
“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
“I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading.”
“There is but one element of government, and that is THE PEOPLE. From this element spring all governments. “For a nation to be free, it is only necessary that she wills it.” For a nation to be slave, it is only necessary that she wills it.”
“When I was young, and addicted to reading, I had heard about dancing on the points of metaphysical needles; but, by mixing in the world, I found the points of political needles finer and sharper than the metaphysical ones.”
“The true source of our sufferings has been our timidity.”
“Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.”
“A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man’s attention and to inflame his ambition.”
“I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.”
“I drink no cider, but feast on Philadelphia beer.”
“It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.”
“All great changes are irksome to the human mind, especially those which are attended with great dangers and uncertain effects.”
“I wish I could lay down beside her and die too.”
“Public business must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise man decline, others will not; if honest man refuse it, others will not.”
“The destiny of America is to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to all men everywhere.”
“It is much easier to pull down a government, in such a conjuncture of affairs as we have seen, than to build up, at such a season as the present.”
“The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.”
“The die is cast. The people have passed the river and cut away the bridge. Last night three cargoes of tea were emptied into the harbor. This is the grandest event which has ever yet happened since the controversy with Britain opened.”
“When legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.”
“Neither my father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, great grandfather or great grandmother, nor any other relation that I know of, or care a farthing for, has been in England these one hundred and fifty years; so that you see I have not one drop of blood in my veins but what is American.”
“Let frugality and industry be our virtues.”
“In days of yore, the poet’s pen From wing of bird was plunder’d, Perhaps of goose, but now and then, From Jove’s own eagle sunder’d. But now, metallic pens disclose Alone the poet’s numbers; In iron inspiration glows, Or with the poet slumbers.”
“The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.”
“Vanity, I am sensible, is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly; and I am in continual danger, when in company, of being led an ignis fatuus chase by it.”
“If worthless men are sometimes at the head of affairs, it is, I believe, because worthless men are at the tail and the middle.”
“The rights of Englishmen are derived from God, not from king or Parliament, and would be secured by the study of history, law, and tradition.”
“My God! This is a revolution! We have to offend someone!”
“Modesty is a virtue that can never thrive in public.”
“As unbalanced parties of every description can never tolerate a free inquiry of any kind, when employed against themselves, the license, and even the most temperate freedom of the press, soon excite resentment and revenge.”
“July 4th ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion.”
“The divine science of government is the science of social happiness, and the blessings of society depend entirely on the constitutions of government.”
“In every society where property exists there will ever be a struggle between rich and poor. Mixed in one assembly, equal laws can never be expected; they will either be made by the member to plunder the few who are rich, or by the influence to fleece the many who are poor.”
“God is an essence that we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.”
“My history of the Jesuits is not elegantly written, but is supported by unquestionable authorities, is very particular and very horrible. Their restoration is indeed “a step toward darkness,” cruelty, perfidy, despotism, death and I wish we were out of danger of bigotry and Jesuitism.”
“As good government is an empire of laws, how shall your laws be made? In a large society, inhabiting an extensive country, it is impossible that the whole should assemble to make laws. The first necessary step, then, is to depute power from the many to a few of the most wise and good.”
“You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular; you are very much otherwise. And you can write ten times better than I can.”
“I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation.”
“As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him.”
“You may have the bishop pair but I have the ultimate advantage; I am the better player!”
“When you see a good move, sit on your hands and find a better one.”
“If the empire of superstition and hypocrisy should be overthrown, happy indeed will it be for the world; but if all religion and morality should be over-thrown with it, what advantage will be gained?”
“Riches attract attention, consideration, and congratulations of mankind.”
“Admire and adore the Author of the telescopic universe, love and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen ill, and increase good, but never assume to comprehend.”
“I didn’t grow up imagining myself as an opera composer. Only once in my entire adolescence did I attend an opera. I went and saw Aida at the old Met, didn’t understand a thing about it, and thought it was pretty awful. But I think I had it in my genes without even realising it.”
“During the whole time I sat with him in Congress, I never heard him utter three sentences together.”
“The form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best.”
“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?”
“If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information and benevolence...”
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