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Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.

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
Liberty
Right
Real
Surely
Property
Mankind

More quotes by John Adams

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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.
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The only way to form an army to be confided in, was a systematic discipline, by which means all men may be made heroes.
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What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?
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The law no passion can disturb. 'Tis void of desire and fear, lust and anger. 'Tis mens sine affectu, written reason, retaining some measure of the divine perfection. It does not enjoin that which pleases a weak, frail man, but, without any regard to persons, commands that which is good and punishes evil in all, whether rich or poor, high or low.
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I desire no other inscription over my gravestone than: 'Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility of peace with France in the year 1800'.
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Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.
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They shall not be expected to acknowledge us until we have acknowledged ourselves.
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They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts.
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He is too illiterate, unread, unlearned for his station and reputation.
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A representative assembly, although extremely well qualified, and absolutely necessary, as a branch of the legislative, is unfit to exercise the executive power, for want of two essential properties, secrecy and dispatch.
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Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
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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.
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I shall have the liberty to think for myself.
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It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.
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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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I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved - the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!
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There never was yet a people who must not have somebody or something to represent the dignity of the state, the majesty of the people, call it what you will - a doge, an avoyer, an archon, a president, a consul, a syndic this becomes at once an object of ambition and dispute, and, in time, of division, faction, sedition, and rebellion.
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Ambition is one of the ungovernable passions of the human heart. The love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable.
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Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.
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Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.
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