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A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.

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
Excellent
Instruments
Ambition
Certainly
Attention
Inflame
Men
Pens
Instrument
Presidential

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The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.
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They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts.
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Power must never be trusted without a check.
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All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.
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The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now. They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.
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The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.
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As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him.
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Shall we have recourse to the art of printing? But this has not destroyed property or aristocracy or corporations or paper wealth in England or America, or diminished the influence of either on the contrary, it has multiplied aristocracy and diminished democracy.
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All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.
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There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.
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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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I Pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on this house, and on ALL that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof!
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I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation.
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Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.
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Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.
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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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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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Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.
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Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
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You are apprehensive of monarchy I, of aristocracy. I would therefore have given more power to the President and less to the Senate.
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