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The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.

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
People
Liberty
Keepers
Worst
Proposition
Political
Liberties
True
Propositions
Body
Patriotic
Best
Judge
Think
Judging
Thinking
Neither
Conceivable

More quotes by John Adams

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I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.
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What is to become of an independent statesman, one who will bow the knee to no idol, who will worship nothing as a divinity but truth, virtue, and his country? I will tell you he will be regarded more by posterity than those who worship hounds and horses and although he will not make his own fortune, he will make the fortune of his country.
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There is no greater guilt than the unneccessary war.
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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!
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Modesty is a virtue that can never thrive in public.
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The frightful engines of ecclesiastical councils, of diabolical malice, and Calvinistical good-nature never failed to terrify me exceedingly whenever I thought of preaching.
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Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. What a Utopia! What a paradise this region would be.
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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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[I] never understood [what a republican government was and] I believe no other man ever did or ever will.
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Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
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The destiny of America is to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to all men everywhere.
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Whenever serious art loses track of its roots in the vernacular, then it begins to atrophy.
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Farther I could find it in my heart to wish that you had been at the head of a hundred thousand Israelites . . . & marching with them into Judea & making a conquest of that country & restoring your nation to the dominion of it. For I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation.
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I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation.
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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.
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This is a revolution, damn it! We're going to have to offend somebody!
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There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
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When philosophic reason is clear and certain by intuition or necessary induction, no subsequent revelation supported by prophecies or miracles can supersede it.
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People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity.
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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.
John Adams