Top 250 John Adams Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 3 of 6

101. “We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption.”

— John Adams

102. “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.”

— John Adams

103. “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other... The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People... they may change their Rulers, and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty... A Constitution of Government once changed from freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

— John Adams

104. “There is not an enemy so stout, as to storm and take the fortress of the mind, Unless its infirmity turn traitor, and Fear unbar the gates.”

— John Adams

105. “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.”

— John Adams

106. “Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.”

— John Adams

107. “Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.”

— John Adams

108. “The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

— John Adams

109. “Politics are a labyrinth without a clue.”

— John Adams

110. “Whenever serious art loses track of its roots in the vernacular, then it begins to atrophy.”

— John Adams

111. “A taste for literature and a turn for business, united in the same person, never fails to make a great man.”

— John Adams

112. “Everything in life should be done with reflection.”

— John Adams

113. “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.”

— John Adams

114. “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.”

— John Adams

115. “The destiny of America is to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to all men everywhere.”

— John Adams

116. “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.”

— John Adams

117. “We hold that each man is the best judge of his own interest.”

— John Adams

118. “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.”

— John Adams

119. “The divine science of government is the science of social happiness, and the blessings of society depend entirely on the constitutions of government.”

— John Adams

120. “Virtue is not always amiable.”

— John Adams

121. “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?”

— John Adams

122. “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.”

— John Adams

123. “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.”

— John Adams

124. “I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen.”

— John Adams

125. “Resistance to sudden violence, for the preservation not only of my person, my limbs, and life, but of my property, is an indisputable right of nature which I have never surrendered to the public by the compact of society, and which perhaps, I could not surrender if I would.”

— John Adams

126. “The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.”

— John Adams

127. “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.”

— John Adams

128. “The people, when they have been unchecked, have been as unjust, tyrannical, brutal, barbarous, and cruel, as any king or senate possessed of uncontrollable power. The majority has eternally, and without one exception, usurped over the rights of the minority.”

— John Adams

129. “Ambition is the subtlest beast of the intellectual and moral field. It is wonderfully adroit in concealing itself from its owner.”

— John Adams

130. “Mr. Adams, describing a conversation with Jonathan Sewall in 1774, says: “I answered that the die was now cast; I had passed the Rubicon. Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination.””

— John Adams

131. “National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman, and that there is an obligation to perform such a duty absolutely irrespective of party politics or factional differences.”

— John Adams

132. “Men must be ready, they must pride themselves and be happy to sacrifice their private pleasures, passions and interests, nay, their private friendships and dearest connections, when they stand in competition with the rights of society.”

— John Adams

133. “The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.”

— John Adams

134. “That the desires of the majority of the people are often for injustice and inhumanity against the minority, is demonstrated by every page of the history of the world.”

— John Adams

135. “You will ever remember that all the end of study is to make you a good man and a useful citizen.”

— John Adams

136. “Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?”

— John Adams

137. “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.”

— John Adams

138. “This oration will be read five hundred years hence with as much rapture as it was heard. It ought to be read at the end of every century, and indeed at the end of every year, forever and ever.”

— John Adams

139. “Government is nothing more than the combined force of society, or the united power of the multitude, for the peace, order, safety, good and happiness of the people.”

— John Adams

140. “Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.”

— John Adams

141. “You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.”

— John Adams

142. “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.”

— John Adams

143. “I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation.”

— John Adams

144. “Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.”

— John Adams

145. “Politics are the divine science, after all.”

— John Adams

146. “July 4th ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion.”

— John Adams

147. “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?”

— John Adams

148. “Let them revere nothing but religion, morality and liberty.”

— John Adams

149. “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.”

— John Adams

150. “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.”

— John Adams