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Power must never be trusted without a check.

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
Never
Trusted
Check
Checks
Power
Without
Must

More quotes by John Adams

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No good government but what is republican... the very definition of a republic is 'an empire of laws, and not of men.'
John Adams
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I am quite content to come home and go to Farming, be a select Man, and owe no Man any Thing but good Will. There I can get a little health and teach my Boys to be Lawyers.
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The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.
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You will ever remember that all the end of study is to make you a good man and a useful citizen.
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I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them.
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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
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The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity
John Adams
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[I] never understood [what a republican government was and] I believe no other man ever did or ever will.
John Adams
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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.
John Adams
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Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
John Adams
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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.
John Adams
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Mr. Jefferson has reason to reflect upon himself. How he will get rid of his remorse in his retirement, I know not. He must know that he leaves the government infinitely worse than he found it, and that from his own error or ignorance.
John Adams
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Borrowed eloquence, if it contains as good stuff, is as good as own eloquence
John Adams
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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
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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
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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!
John Adams
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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.
John Adams
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I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.
John Adams
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If we take a survey of the greatest actions...in the world...we shall find the authors of them all to have been persons whose Brains had been shaken out of their natural position.
John Adams
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Whenever serious art loses track of its roots in the vernacular, then it begins to atrophy.
John Adams