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Power in any Form . . . when directed only by human Wisdom and Benevolence is dangerous.

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
Human
Humans
Benevolence
Directed
Dangerous
Wisdom
Form
Power

More quotes by John Adams

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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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They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts.
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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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Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.
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To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.
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Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.
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Negro slavery is an evil of colossal magnitude.
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Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.
John Adams
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The government of the United States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.
John Adams
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But America is a great, unwieldy Body. Its Progress must be slow. It is like a large Fleet sailing under Convoy. The fleetest Sailors must wait for the dullest and slowest. Like a Coach and six-the swiftest Horses must be slackened and the slowest quickened, that all may keep an even Pace.
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Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States ... I have, throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in ... abhorrence.
John Adams
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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.
John Adams
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Ideology is the science of idiots.
John Adams
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I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
John Adams
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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.
John Adams
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[I] never understood [what a republican government was and] I believe no other man ever did or ever will.
John Adams
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There never was yet a people who must not have somebody or something to represent the dignity of the state, the majesty of the people, call it what you will - a doge, an avoyer, an archon, a president, a consul, a syndic this becomes at once an object of ambition and dispute, and, in time, of division, faction, sedition, and rebellion.
John Adams
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The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation: The doctrine of a supreme, intelligent sovereign of the universe, I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.
John Adams
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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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It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.
John Adams