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Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.

John Adams

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John Adams
Age: 90 †
Born: 1735
Born: October 19
Died: 1826
Died: July 4
2Nd U.S. President
Diplomat
Lawyer
Political Philosopher
Politician
Statesperson
Braintree
Massachusetts
President Adams
J. Adams
President John Adams
Service
Laws
Law
Peace
War
Power
Always
Violating
Thinking
Thinks

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The frightful engines of ecclesiastical councils, of diabolical malice, and Calvinistical good-nature never failed to terrify me exceedingly whenever I thought of preaching.
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Ambition is the subtlest beast of the intellectual and moral field. It is wonderfully adroit in concealing itself from its owner.
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When you see a good move, sit on your hands and find a better one.
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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.
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When I was young, and addicted to reading, I had heard about dancing on the points of metaphysical needles but, by mixing in the world, I found the points of political needles finer and sharper than the metaphysical ones.
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Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.
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I drink no cider, but feast on Philadelphia beer.
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Mystery is made a convenient Cover for absurdity.
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Human passions unbridled by morality and religion...would break the stronges cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.
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My God! This is a revolution! We have to offend someone!
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The destiny of America is to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to all men everywhere.
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Where annual elections end, there slavery begins ... Humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.
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Vanity, I am sensible, is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly and I am in continual danger, when in company, of being led an ignis fatuus chase by it.
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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.
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Slavery is a foul contagion in the human character.
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Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.
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Facts are stubborn things and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence: nor is the law less stable than the fact.
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I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
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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.
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[I] never understood [what a republican government was and] I believe no other man ever did or ever will.
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