110+ John Adams Quotes On Democracy, Government And Education

John Adams was the second President of the United States, serving from 1797 to 1801. He was a Founding Father, who was instrumental in the American Revolution and the creation of the United States. Adams was also a diplomat and served as the first Vice President of the United States under President George Washington. Following is our collection on famous quotes by John Adams on democracy, government, education.

Top 10 John Adams Quotes

1. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
2. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
3. But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
4. Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
5. The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.
6. One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress.
7. 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.
8. Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.
9. Power must never be trusted without a check.
10. Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.

John Adams Short Quotes

• July 4th ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion.
• To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.
• Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.
• We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!
• Mystery is made a convenient Cover for absurdity.
• We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption.
• Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.
• The National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.
• If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?
• This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.

John Adams Quotes About Democracy

Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. — John Adams

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

I 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. — John Adams

Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never. — John Adams

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

It is much easier to pull down a government, in such a conjuncture of affairs as we have seen, than to build up, at such a season as the present. — John Adams

Shall we have recourse to the art of printing? But this has not destroyed property or aristocracy or corporations or paper wealth in England or America, or diminished the influence of either; on the contrary, it has multiplied aristocracy and diminished democracy. — John Adams

John Adams Quotes About Government

There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution. — John Adams

The government of the United States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims. — John Adams

He is too illiterate, unread, unlearned for his station and reputation. — John Adams

As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it. — John Adams

Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion. — John Adams

Fear is the foundation of most governments. — John Adams

The happiness of society is the end of government. — John Adams

The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men. — John Adams

The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people's hands, that is, to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and in the courts of justice. — John Adams

If the multitude is possessed of the balance of real estate, the multitude will have the balance of power, and in that case the multitude will take care of the liberty, virtue, and interest of the multitude in all acts of government. — John Adams

John Adams Quotes About Education

There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live. — John Adams

Before any great things are accomplished, a memorable change must be made in the system of education...to raise the lower ranks of society nearer to the higher. — John Adams

Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant. — John Adams

Education makes a greater difference between man and man than nature has made between man and brute. — John Adams

A native of America who cannot read or write is . . . as rare as a comet or an earthquake. — John Adams

I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading. — John Adams

Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing. — John Adams

You will ever remember that all the end of study is to make you a good man and a useful citizen. — John Adams

John Adams Quotes About Love

The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly [with your God]. This is enough. — John Adams

You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket. — John Adams

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

Ambition is one of the ungovernable passions of the human heart. The love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable. — John Adams

There is something very unnatural and odious in a government a thousand leagues off. A whole government of our own choice, managed by persons whom we love, revere, and can confide in, has charms in it for which men will fight. — John Adams

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

We must not then depend alone upon the love of liberty in the soul of man for its preservation. — John Adams

What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love? — John Adams

John Adams Quotes About Liberty

Be 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

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. — John Adams

Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots. — John Adams

The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. — John Adams

Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people. — John Adams

[L]iberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had 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

Those who trade liberty for security have neither. — John Adams

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty. — John Adams

That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience. — John Adams

The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity — John Adams

John Adams Quotes About Revolution

Let justice be done though the heavens should fall. — John Adams

Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations. — John Adams

Elections to office, which are the great objects of ambition, I look at with terror! — John Adams

Several country towns, within my observation, have at least a dozen taverns. Here the time, the money, the health and the modesty, of most that are young and of many old, are wasted. Here diseases, vicious habits, bastards and legislators are frequently spawned. — John Adams

You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular; you are very much otherwise. And you can write ten times better than I can. — John Adams

The ten commandments and the sermon on the mount contain my religion. — John Adams

This is a revolution, damn it! We're going to have to offend somebody! — John Adams

My History of the Jesuits is in four volumes.... This society has been a greater calamity to mankind than the French Revolution, or Napoleon's despotism or ideology. It has obstructed progress of reformation and the improvement of the human mind in society much longer and more fatally. — John Adams

It is an observation of one of the profoundest inquirers into human affairs that a revolution of government is the strongest proof that can be given by a people of their virtue and good sense. — John Adams

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

John Adams Quotes About War

I must study war and politics so that my children shall be free to study commerce, agriculture and other practicalities, so that their children can study painting, poetry and other fine things. — John Adams

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. — John Adams

It is not only the juror's right, but his duty to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment and conscience, though in direct opposition to the instruction of the court. — John Adams

The real fabric of American society is not all those flags you see on people's cars...it's in the Bill of Rights and in our constitutional form of government. — John Adams

There is no greater guilt than the unneccessary war. — John Adams

In general, our generals were outgeneralled. — John Adams

John Adams Quotes About Freedom

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

As unbalanced parties of every description can never tolerate a free inquiry of any kind, when employed against themselves, the license, and even the most temperate freedom of the press, soon excite resentment and revenge. — John Adams

[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. — John Adams

When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more. — John Adams

Yesterday 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

Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power. — John Adams

John Adams Quotes About People

The only thing most people do better than anyone else is read their own handwriting. — John Adams

People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity. — John Adams

America is destined to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs. — John Adams

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

We shall convince France and the world, that we are not a degraded people, humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear and a sense of inferiority, fitted to be the miserable instruments of foreign influence, and regardless of national honor, character, and interest. — John Adams

The people "have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge- I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers." — John Adams

A question arises whether all the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, shall be left in this body? I think a people cannot be long free, nor ever happy, whose government is in one Assembly. — John Adams

The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now. They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty. — John Adams

There is but one element of government, and that is THE PEOPLE. From this element spring all governments. "For a nation to be free, it is only necessary that she wills it." For a nation to be slave, it is only necessary that she wills it. — John Adams

When legislature is corrupted, the people are undone. — John Adams

John Adams Quotes About Politics

In politics the middle way is none at all. — John Adams

When economic power became concentrated in a few hands, then political power flowed to those possessors and away from the citizens, ultimately resulting in an oligarchy or tyranny. — John Adams

I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world. — John Adams

If "Thou shalt not covet," and "Thou shalt not steal," were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free. — John Adams

Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell. — John Adams

It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power. — John Adams

Politics are a labyrinth without a clue. — John Adams

Oh! the wisdom, the foresight and the hindsight and the rightsight and the leftsight, the northsight and the southsight, and the eastsight and the westsight that appeared in that august assembly. — John Adams

Where annual elections end, there slavery begins ... Humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey. — John Adams

The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body. — John Adams

John Adams Famous Quotes And Sayings

Our whole system of banks is a violation of every honest principle of banks. There is no honest bank but a bank of deposit. A bank that issues paper at interest is a pickpocket or a robber. But the delusion will have its course. ... An aristocracy is growing out of them that will be as fatal as the feudal barons if unchecked in time. — John Adams

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other. — John Adams

The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves. — John Adams

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

Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases. — John Adams

In every society where property exists there will ever be a struggle between rich and poor. Mixed in one assembly, equal laws can never be expected; they will either be made by the member to plunder the few who are rich, or by the influence to fleece the many who are poor. — John Adams

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

It will be celebrated... with pomp and parade... bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other. — John Adams

The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it. — John Adams

There's no such thing as a free lunch, unless you have a coupon for a free lunch...or someone gives you a lunch...never mind. — John Adams

Banks have done more injury to the religion, morality, tranquility, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they can have done or ever will do good. — John Adams

The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God. — John Adams

Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it. — John Adams

But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed? — John Adams

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

The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws. — John Adams

If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information and benevolence. — John Adams

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write. — John Adams

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

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

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

This is my religion ... joy and exaltation in my own existence ... so go ahead and snarl ... bite ... howl, you Calvinistic divines and all you who say I am no Christian. I say you are not Christian. — John Adams

Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government and in all the combinations of human society. — John Adams

But I must submit all my Hopes and Fears, to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the Faith may be, I firmly believe. — John Adams

Genius is sorrow's child. — John Adams

Ambition is the subtlest beast of the intellectual and moral field. It is wonderfully adroit in concealing itself from its owner. — John Adams

Historically, usury was defined as any interest whatever on an unproductive loan.Our whole banking system I have ever abhorred, I continue to abhor, and I shall die abhorring. — John Adams

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

The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity. — John Adams

The Constitution is ...the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen — John Adams

Human passions unbridled by morality and religion...would break the stronges cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. — John Adams

The true source of our sufferings has been our timidity. — John Adams

The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries. — John Adams

I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them. — John Adams

The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity. — John Adams

Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States ... I have, throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in ... abhorrence. — John Adams

We cannot insure success, but we can deserve it. — John Adams

The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to prevent their growth in our own. — John Adams

A militia law, requiring all men, or with very few exceptions besides cases of conscience, to be provided with arms and ammunition... is always a wise institution, and, in the present circumstances of our country, indispensable. — John Adams

Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. What a Utopia! What a paradise this region would be. — John Adams

[J]udges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men. — John Adams

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

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

In days of yore, the poet's pen From wing of bird was plunder'd, Perhaps of goose, but now and then, From Jove's own eagle sunder'd. But now, metallic pens disclose Alone the poet's numbers; In iron inspiration glows, Or with the poet slumbers. — John Adams

No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it. — John Adams

. . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind. — John Adams

Life Lessons by John Adams

1. John Adams taught the importance of perseverance, as he worked tirelessly to ensure the United States' independence and shape the country's government.
2. He also demonstrated the value of integrity and honesty, as he was a man of his word and believed in doing what was right for the country, even if it was unpopular.
3. Lastly, John Adams showed the power of collaboration, as he worked with other Founding Fathers to create the United States of America.