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If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?

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
Every
General
Men
Whose
Principles
Calculated
Virtue
Promote
Happiness
Sober
Form
Acknowledge
Government
Principle
Better
Foundation

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They shall not be expected to acknowledge us until we have acknowledged ourselves.
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They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts.
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One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress.
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Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.
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While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill - little better understood, little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago.
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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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This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.
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Virtue is not always amiable.
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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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You will ever remember that all the end of study is to make you a good man and a useful citizen.
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Ambition is one of the ungovernable passions of the human heart. The love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable.
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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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Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
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This is a revolution, damn it! We're going to have to offend somebody!
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We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!
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It would be an absurdity for jurors to be required to accept the judge's view of the law, against their own opinion, judgment, and conscience.
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I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading.
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