Best John Adams Quotes
John Adams Quotes About Democracy, Government, The Constitution, Education, Liberty, War, Religion, Independence, America & Guns! An American political leader and lawyer named John Adams was born on October 30, 1735. He became the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. The first vice president of the United States, John Adams, was a leader of the American Revolution that led to the country’s independence from Great Britain. He represented from 1789 to 1797 as the first vice president of the United States. Many influential people in early American history kept in touch with Adams, including his wife and adviser Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson. He kept a diary and wrote letters to many of them regularly.
As a result, delegate to the Continental Congress from Massachusetts, Adams was a crucial figure in the American Revolution. In 1776, he contributed to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, drafted in large part by Adams, had a significant impact on creating the United States, as did Adams’ essay Thoughts on Government.
In 1796, Adams was chosen as the second president of the United States after serving two terms as vice president under President George Washington. He was the only Federalist Party candidate to win the presidency. Jefferson passed away on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Declaration of Independence.
Adams was a gifted public speaker and letter writer who did not hold back when expressing himself. This output has left us with a treasure mine of insight on everything from the struggle of freedom, friendship, reading, and many other topics.
Best John Adams Quotes
1. “There are two types of education… One should teach us how to make a living, and the other how to live.” – John Adams
2. “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
3. “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” – John Adams
4. “Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.” – John Adams
5. “Above all, except the wife and children, I want to see my books.” – John Adams
6. “You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.” – John Adams
7. “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
8. “I read my eyes out and can’t read half enough neither. The more one reads the more one sees we have to read.” – John Adams
9. “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. This is enough.” – John Adams
10. “Let frugality and industry be our virtues. Fire (our children) with ambition to be useful.” – John Adams
11. “Friendship is one of the distinguishing glories of man…From this, I expect to receive the chief happiness of my future life.” – John Adams
12. “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.” – John Adams
13. “Human nature with all its infirmities and depravation is still capable of great things. It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them a habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to an excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue…But their bodies must be hardened, as well as their souls exalted. Without strength and activity and vigor of body, the brightest mental excellencies will be eclipsed and obscured.” – John Adams
14. “To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.” – John Adams
15. “Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make 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
16. “Human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.” – John Adams
17. “Go on and improve in everything worthy.” – John Adams
18. “Virtue is not always amiable.” – John Adams
19. “The true source of our suffering has been our timidity. We have been afraid to think… Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” – John Adams
20. “If conscience disapproves, the loudest applauses of the world are of little value.” – John Adams
21. “Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.” – John Adams
22. “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” – John Adams
23. “Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.” – John Adams
24. “No man is entirely free from weakness and imperfection in this life.” – John Adams
25. “Defeat appears to me preferable to total inaction.” – John Adams
26. “I will rouse up my mind and fix my attention. I will stand collected within myself and think upon what I read and what I see. I will strive with all my soul to be something more than persons who have had less advantages than myself.” – John Adams
27. “The smell of the midnight lamp is very unwholesome. Never defraud yourself of sleep, nor your walk.” – John Adams in a letter to his son John Quincy
28. “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 Adams in a letter to his son John Quincy
29. “To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.” – John Adams
30. “Tyranny can scarcely be practiced upon a virtuous and wise people.” – John Adams
