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Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.

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
Unlimited
Cruel
Libertarian
Discover
Majorities
Majority
Unbridled
Mankind
Tyrannical
Liberty
Despots
Time
Libertarianism

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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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The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.
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I shall have the liberty to think for myself.
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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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Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.
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It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.
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A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.
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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.
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Historically, usury was defined as any interest whatever on an unproductive loan.Our whole banking system I have ever abhorred, I continue to abhor, and I shall die abhorring.
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When economic power became concentrated in a few hands, then political power flowed to those possessors and away from the citizens, ultimately resulting in an oligarchy or tyranny.
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Virtue is not always amiable.
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Honor is truly sacred, but holds a lower rank in the scale of moral excellence than virtue. Indeed the former is part of the latter, and consequently has not equal pretensions to support a frame of government productive of human happiness.
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As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it.
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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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The universal object and idol of men of letters is reputation.
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In politics the middle way is none at all.
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Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
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I am quite content to come home and go to Farming, be a select Man, and owe no Man any Thing but good Will. There I can get a little health and teach my Boys to be Lawyers.
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I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them.
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[J]udges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men.
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