Quote

I never engaged in public affairs for my own interest, pleasure, envy, jealousy, avarice or ambition, or even the desire of fame

John Adams

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Public
Avarice
Pleasure
Jealousy
Interest
Affairs
Desire
Engaged
Even
Envy
Never
Affair
Ambition
Fame

More quotes by John Adams

Image
We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption.
John Adams
Image
In every society where property exists there will ever be a struggle between rich and poor. Mixed in one assembly, equal laws can never be expected they will either be made by the member to plunder the few who are rich, or by the influence to fleece the many who are poor.
John Adams
Image
Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.
John Adams
Image
When philosophic reason is clear and certain by intuition or necessary induction, no subsequent revelation supported by prophecies or miracles can supersede it.
John Adams
Image
During the whole time I sat with him in Congress, I never heard him utter three sentences together.
John Adams
Image
Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.
John Adams
Image
One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress.
John Adams
Image
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
Image
Mystery is made a convenient Cover for absurdity.
John Adams
Image
This is my religion ... joy and exaltation in my own existence ... so go ahead and snarl ... bite ... howl, you Calvinistic divines and all you who say I am no Christian. I say you are not Christian.
John Adams
Image
What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?
John Adams
Image
You are apprehensive of monarchy I, of aristocracy. I would therefore have given more power to the President and less to the Senate.
John Adams
Image
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
Image
They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts.
John Adams
Image
Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
John Adams
Image
I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.
John Adams
Image
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
Image
The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.
John Adams
Image
A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.
John Adams
Image
Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
John Adams