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Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government and in all the combinations of human society.

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
Free
Combinations
Religion
Felicity
Social
Foundations
Government
Combination
Human
Morality
Humans
Foundation
Virtue
Society
Republicanism

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I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation.
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We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption.
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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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One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress.
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What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?
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All great changes are irksome to the human mind, especially those which are attended with great dangers and uncertain effects.
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[L]iberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.
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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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It is folly to anticipate evils, and madness to create imaginary ones.
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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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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'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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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.
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I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.
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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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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.
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He is too illiterate, unread, unlearned for his station and reputation.
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The appearance of religion only on Sunday proves that it is only an appearance.
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The rights of Englishmen are derived from God, not from king or Parliament, and would be secured by the study of history, law, and tradition.
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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.
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