01c. 1780 ADKnowledge in the head and virtue in the heart, time devoted to study or business, instead of show and pleasure, are the way to be useful and consequently happy.John Adams / quote ↗
02c. 1780 ADNegro Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude and I am utterly averse to the admission of Slavery into the Missouri Territories.John Adams / quote ↗
04c. 1780 ADA Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.John Adams / quote ↗
05c. 1780 ADGovernment is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men.John Adams / quote ↗
07c. 1780 ADIt is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished.But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, 'whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,' and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.John Adams / quote ↗
08c. 1780 ADHe wrote as a young man that God's noblest gift was the gift of an inquiring mind.John Adams / quote ↗
09c. 1780 AD...Turn our thoughts, in the next place, to the characters of learned men. The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. Read over again all the accounts we have of Hindoos, Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Teutons, we shall find that priests had all the knowledge, and really governed all mankind. Examine Mahometanism, trace Christianity from its first promulgation; knowledge has been almost exclusively confined to the clergy. And, even since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate a free inquiry? The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded. But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will soon find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your legs and hands, and fly into your face andJohn Adams / quote ↗
10c. 1780 ADBe it remembered, that liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we have not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.John Adams / quote ↗
11c. 1780 ADYesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, 'that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.John Adams / quote ↗
13c. 1780 ADI do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.John Adams / quote ↗
14c. 1780 ADYou go on, I presume, with your latin Exercises: and I wish to hear of your beginning upon Sallust who is one of the most polished and perfect of the Roman Historians, every Period of whom, and I had almost said every Syllable and every Letter is worth Studying.In Company with Sallust, Cicero, Tacitus and Livy, you will learn Wisdom and Virtue. You will see them represented, with all the Charms which Language and Imagination can exhibit, and Vice and Folly painted in all their Deformity and Horror.You will ever remember that all the End of study is to make you a good Man and a useful Citizen.—This will ever be the Sum total of the Advice of your affectionate Father,John AdamsJohn Adams / quote ↗
15c. 1780 ADProperty monopolized or in the possession of a few is a curse to mankind.John Adams / quote ↗
16c. 1780 ADA taste for literature and a turn for business, united in the same person, never fails to make a great man.John Adams / quote ↗
17c. 1780 ADPosterity! 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. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.John Adams / quote ↗
18c. 1780 ADBe not intimidated...nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.John Adams / quote ↗
20c. 1780 ADEvery man in it is a great man an orator a critic a statesman and therefore every man upon every question must show his oratory his criticism and his political abilities.John Adams / quote ↗
21c. 1780 ADIf I had refused to institute a negotiation or had not persevered in it I would have been degraded in my own estimation as a man of honor.John Adams / quote ↗
22c. 1780 ADI must study politics and war that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy geography natural history and naval architecture navigation commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting poetry music architecture statuary tapestry and porcelain.John Adams / quote ↗
23c. 1780 ADSwim or sink live or die survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination.John Adams / quote ↗
