We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular governments. But there is great danger that those governments will not make us happy. God grant they may. But I fear that in every assembly, members will obtain an influence by noise, not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not learning. By contracted hearts, not large souls.
John AdamsThe rights of Englishmen are derived from God, not from king or Parliament, and would be secured by the study of history, law, and tradition.
John AdamsThere are only two creatures of value on the face of the earth: those with the commitment, and those who require the commitment of others.
John AdamsWhen public virtue is gone, when the national spirit is fled the republic is lost in essence, though it may still exist in form
John AdamsDid you ever see a portrait of a great man without perceiving strong traits of pain and anxiety?
John AdamsThe human understanding is a revelation from its maker, which can never be disputed or doubted. There can be no scepticism, Pyrrhonism, or incredulity or infidelity here. No prophecies, no miracles are necessary to prove this celestical communication. This revelation has made it certain that two and one make three, and that one is not three nor can three be one. We can never be so certain of any prophecy, or the fulfilment of any prophecy, or of any miracle, or the design of any miracle, as we are from the revelation of nature, that is, nature's God, that two and two are equal to four.
John Adams