Quote

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.

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
Study
Secured
Rights
Englishmen
Law
Derived
History
Parliament
Would
King
Tradition
Kings
Liberty

More quotes by John Adams

Image
Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.
John Adams
Image
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.
John Adams
Image
There is not an enemy so stout, as to storm and take the fortress of the mind, Unless its infirmity turn traitor, and Fear unbar the gates.
John Adams
Image
The appearance of religion only on Sunday proves that it is only an appearance.
John Adams
Image
To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.
John Adams
Image
There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.
John Adams
Image
[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
Image
We electors have an important constitutional power placed in our hands we have a check upon two branches of the legislature.
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
The destiny of America is to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to all men everywhere.
John Adams
Image
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.
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
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
Image
My God! This is a revolution! We have to offend someone!
John Adams
Image
Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.
John Adams
Image
The idea of infidelity [a disbelief in the inspiration of the Scriptures or the divine origin of Christianity] cannot be treated with too much resentment or too much horror. The man who can think of it with patience is a traitor in his heart and ought to be execrated [denounced] as one who adds the deepest hypocrisy to the blackest treason.
John Adams
Image
The government of the United States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.
John Adams
Image
Negro Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude. I am therefore utterly averse to the admission of Slavery into the Missouri Territory, and heartily wish that every Constitutional measure may be adopted for the preservation of it.
John Adams
Image
This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.
John Adams
Image
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