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" Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power. "
John Adams
Liberty
Power
Thought
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" The happiness of society is the end of government. "
John Adams
Society
End
Government
" Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. "
John Adams
Government
People
Moral
" My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived. "
John Adams
Imagination
Country
Office
" 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. "
John Adams
Birds
Long
Love
" Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell. "
John Adams
Imagination
Eye
Spell
" The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals. "
John Adams
States
Well
Individuals
" Fear is the foundation of most governments. "
John Adams
Most
Foundation
Governments
" 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. "
John Adams
Hang
Right
Necessity
" Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order. "
John Adams
Exercise
Working
Wish
" Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. "
John Adams
War
Great
Guilt
" I, poor creature, worn out with scribbling for my bread and my liberty, low in spirits and weak in health, must leave others to wear the laurels which I have sown, others to eat the bread which I have earned. A common case. "
John Adams
Health
Bread
Eat
" 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. "
John Adams
Long
Democracy
More
" The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries. "
John Adams
Essence
Government
Free
" 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. "
John Adams
Done
Fate
Men
" Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases. "
John Adams
Character
Moral
Power
" Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. "
John Adams
Remember
Democracy
Long
" Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people. "
John Adams
People
Knowledge
Liberty
" Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society. "
John Adams
Abuse
Society
Great
" I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman. "
John Adams
Woman
You
Write
" Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty. "
John Adams
Property
Right
Real
" Genius is sorrow's child. "
John Adams
Sorrow
Genius
Child
" Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak. "
John Adams
Soul
Always
Beyond
" 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. "
John Adams
Government
Years
Three
" I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth. "
John Adams
Opening
America
Wonder
" All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation. "
John Adams
Nature
Constitution
Honor
" I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. "
John Adams
Politics
Mathematics
War
" 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. "
John Adams
My Own
House
You
" 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. "
John Adams
Generation
Freedom
Hope
" Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. "
John Adams
Laws
Always
Doing
" A government of laws, and not of men. "
John Adams
Men
Government
Laws