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Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.

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
Ears
Catholicism
Hold
Spell
Imagination
Luther
Wonder
Spells
Simple
Charm
Eye
Broke
Ever
Lays
Everything
Ignorant

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Mystery is made a convenient Cover for absurdity.
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When you see a good move, sit on your hands and find a better one.
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It is folly to anticipate evils, and madness to create imaginary ones.
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I drink no cider, but feast on Philadelphia beer.
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I would define liberty to be a power to do as we would be done by. The definition of liberty to be the power of doing whatever the law permits, meaning the civil laws, does not seem satisfactory.
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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.
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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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[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.
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To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.
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One sailor will do us more good than two soldiers.
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People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity.
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What havoc, said I to myself, would these manners make in America! Our governors, our judges, our senators or representatives, and even our ministers, would be appointed by harlots, for money and their judgments, decrees, and decisions, be sold to repay themselves, or, perhaps, to procure the smiles of profligate females.
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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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I am a revolutionary, so my son can be a farmer, so his son can be a poet.
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Make Things rather than Persons the subjects of conversations.
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I would quarrel with both parties, and with every individual of each, before I would subjugate my understanding, or prostitute my tongue or pen to either.
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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.
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Popularity, next to virtue and wisdom, ought to be aimed at for it is the dictate of wisdom, and is necessary to the practice of virtue inmost.
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I had heard my father say that he never knew a piece of land run away or break.
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. . . 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.
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