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They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts.

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
Political
Scrambling
Another
Apes
Like
Rank
Nuts
Politician
Pay
Worry
Politics

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My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.
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Mystery is made a convenient Cover for absurdity.
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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.'
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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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Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.
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[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.
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There are persons whom in my heart I despise, others I abhor. Yet I am not obliged to inform the one of my contempt, nor the other of my detestation. This kind of dissimulation...is a necessary branch of wisdom, and so far from being immoral...that it is a duty and a virtue.
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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.
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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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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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The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.
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The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.
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If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?
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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.
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I shall have the liberty to think for myself.
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Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.
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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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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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Had I been chosen President again, I am certain I could not have lived another year.
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There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.
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