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[T]he liberty, the unalienable, indefeasible rights of men, the honor and dignity of human nature, the grandeur and glory of the public, and the universal happiness of individuals, were never so skillfully and successfully consulted as in that most excellent monument of human art, the common law of England.

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
Consulted
Men
Happiness
Universal
Successfully
Freedom
Glory
Individual
Honor
Monument
Art
Liberty
Grandeur
Nature
Public
Excellent
Indefeasible
Human
Rights
Individuals
Unalienable
Humans
Law
Dignity
Skillfully
Never
Common
England

More quotes by John Adams

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They shall not be expected to acknowledge us until we have acknowledged ourselves.
John Adams
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I do not like the reappearance of the Jesuits... Nevertheless, we are compelled by our system of religious toleration to offer them an asylum.
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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Had I been chosen President again, I am certain I could not have lived another year.
John Adams
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The frightful engines of ecclesiastical councils, of diabolical malice, and Calvinistical good-nature never failed to terrify me exceedingly whenever I thought of preaching.
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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My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.
John Adams
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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.
John Adams
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I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved - the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!
John Adams
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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.
John Adams
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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.
John Adams
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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.'
John Adams
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Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
John Adams
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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.
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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Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.
John Adams
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If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information and benevolence.
John Adams
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You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.
John Adams
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Where annual elections end, there slavery begins ... Humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.
John Adams
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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.
John Adams