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Virtue is not always amiable.

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
Virtue
Always
Amiable
Humankind

More quotes by John Adams

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. . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.
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Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
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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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Thomas Jefferson survives.
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I never engaged in public affairs for my own interest, pleasure, envy, jealousy, avarice or ambition, or even the desire of fame
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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.
John Adams
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I shall have the liberty to think for myself.
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Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.
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Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.
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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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Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.
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The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.
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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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The deliberate union of so great and various a people in such a place, is without all partiality or prejudice, if not the greatest exertion of human understanding, the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen.
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But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
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Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.
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You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.
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One sailor will do us more good than two soldiers.
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A representative assembly, although extremely well qualified, and absolutely necessary, as a branch of the legislative, is unfit to exercise the executive power, for want of two essential properties, secrecy and dispatch.
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Borrowed eloquence, if it contains as good stuff, is as good as own eloquence
John Adams