Quote

But America is a great, unwieldy Body. Its Progress must be slow. It is like a large Fleet sailing under Convoy. The fleetest Sailors must wait for the dullest and slowest. Like a Coach and six-the swiftest Horses must be slackened and the slowest quickened, that all may keep an even Pace.

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
Must
Horse
Sailing
Convoy
Great
Large
Horses
Unwieldy
Even
Progress
Coach
Quickened
Like
Waiting
Pace
Dullest
Keep
Coaches
Slowest
America
Slow
Fleet
Body
Six
Sailors
May
Wait
Sailor
Swiftest

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The fundamental article of my political creed is that despotism, or limited sovereignty, or absolute power is the same [whether] in a majority of a popular assembly an aristocratic council or oligarchical junto and a single emperor - equally arbitrary, cruel, bloody and in every respect diabolical.
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America is destined to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs.
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I am a revolutionary, so my son can be a farmer, so his son can be a poet.
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We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!
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Mystery is made a convenient Cover for absurdity.
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I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
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Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.
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The only thing most people do better than anyone else is read their own handwriting.
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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.
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He is too illiterate, unread, unlearned for his station and reputation.
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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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A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.
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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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I drink no cider, but feast on Philadelphia beer.
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Popularity, next to virtue and wisdom, ought to be aimed at for it is the dictate of wisdom, and is necessary to the practice of virtue inmost.
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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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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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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.
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They shall not be expected to acknowledge us until we have acknowledged ourselves.
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I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen.
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