Quote

Human passions unbridled by morality and religion...would break the stronges cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.

John Adams

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Would
Morality
Constitution
Goes
Break
Unbridled
Passion
Whale
Religion
Cords
Human
Whales
Humans
Passions

More quotes by John Adams

Image
All great changes are irksome to the human mind, especially those which are attended with great dangers and uncertain effects.
John Adams
Image
Power in any Form . . . when directed only by human Wisdom and Benevolence is dangerous.
John Adams
Image
[L]iberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.
John Adams
Image
There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.
John Adams
Image
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
Image
Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.
John Adams
Image
Yesterday, the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.
John Adams
Image
I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.
John Adams
Image
Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.
John Adams
Image
The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it.
John Adams
Image
It would be an absurdity for jurors to be required to accept the judge's view of the law, against their own opinion, judgment, and conscience.
John Adams
Image
Virtue is not always amiable.
John Adams
Image
The fundamental article of my political creed is that despotism, or limited sovereignty, or absolute power is the same [whether] in a majority of a popular assembly an aristocratic council or oligarchical junto and a single emperor - equally arbitrary, cruel, bloody and in every respect diabolical.
John Adams
Image
They shall not be expected to acknowledge us until we have acknowledged ourselves.
John Adams
Image
He is too illiterate, unread, unlearned for his station and reputation.
John Adams
Image
There's no such thing as a free lunch, unless you have a coupon for a free lunch...or someone gives you a lunch...never mind.
John Adams
Image
Make Things rather than Persons the subjects of conversations.
John Adams
Image
The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people's hands, that is, to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and in the courts of justice.
John Adams
Image
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.
John Adams
Image
The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.
John Adams