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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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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
Men
Republican
Understood
America
Government
Ever
Believe
Never

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Power in any Form . . . when directed only by human Wisdom and Benevolence is dangerous.
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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 wish I could lay down beside her and die too.
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When I was young, and addicted to reading, I had heard about dancing on the points of metaphysical needles but, by mixing in the world, I found the points of political needles finer and sharper than the metaphysical ones.
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This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.
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Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.
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Mystery is made a convenient Cover for absurdity.
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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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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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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.
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It is folly to anticipate evils, and madness to create imaginary ones.
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What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?
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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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We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.
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If the way to do good to my country were to render myself popular, I could easily do it. But extravagant popularity is not the road to public advantage.
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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.
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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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The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.
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Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.
John Adams
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Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams