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Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.

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
Used
Defense
May
Private
Self
Citizens
Handguns
Arms
Firearms
Strength
Discretion
Peace
Patriotic
Individual
Libertarian
Hands
Gun

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Negro Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude. I am therefore utterly averse to the admission of Slavery into the Missouri Territory, and heartily wish that every Constitutional measure may be adopted for the preservation of it.
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The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity
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Power in any Form . . . when directed only by human Wisdom and Benevolence is dangerous.
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Make Things rather than Persons the subjects of conversations.
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One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress.
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The numbers of men in all ages have preferred ease, slumber, and good cheer to liberty, when they have been in competition.
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The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to prevent their growth in our own.
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We hold that each man is the best judge of his own interest.
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You are apprehensive of monarchy I, of aristocracy. I would therefore have given more power to the President and less to the Senate.
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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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Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
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If the way to do good to my country were to render myself popular, I could easily do it. But extravagant popularity is not the road to public advantage.
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A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.
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All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.
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Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.
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Public business must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise man decline, others will not if honest man refuse it, others will not.
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God is an essence that we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.
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As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him.
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During the whole time I sat with him in Congress, I never heard him utter three sentences together.
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I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them.
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