I do not like the reappearance of the Jesuits... Nevertheless, we are compelled by our system of religious toleration to offer them an asylum.
John AdamsWhile 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 AdamsBecause power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
John AdamsLiberty, according to my metaphysics, is an intellectual quality, an attribute that belongs not to fate nor chance. Neither possesses it, neither is capable of it. There is nothing moral or immoral in the idea of it. The definition of it is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power; it can elect between objects, indifferent in point of morality, neither morally good nor morally evil.
John Adams