Quote

The universal object and idol of men of letters is reputation.

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
Letters
Universal
Objects
Writing
Idol
Men
Idols
Reputation
Object

More quotes by John Adams

Image
I desire no other inscription over my gravestone than: 'Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility of peace with France in the year 1800'.
John Adams
Image
There are only two creatures of value on the face of the earth: those with the commitment, and those who require the commitment of others.
John Adams
Image
Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart
John Adams
Image
I wish I could lay down beside her and die too.
John Adams
Image
No good government but what is republican... the very definition of a republic is 'an empire of laws, and not of men.'
John Adams
Image
The only way to form an army to be confided in, was a systematic discipline, by which means all men may be made heroes.
John Adams
Image
Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
John Adams
Image
Modesty is a virtue that can never thrive in public.
John Adams
Image
Slavery is a foul contagion in the human character.
John Adams
Image
Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
John Adams
Image
What havoc, said I to myself, would these manners make in America! Our governors, our judges, our senators or representatives, and even our ministers, would be appointed by harlots, for money and their judgments, decrees, and decisions, be sold to repay themselves, or, perhaps, to procure the smiles of profligate females.
John Adams
Image
My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.
John Adams
Image
Vanity, I am sensible, is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly and I am in continual danger, when in company, of being led an ignis fatuus chase by it.
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
I shall have liberty to think for myself without molesting others or being molested myself.
John Adams
Image
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.
John Adams
Image
There's no such thing as a free lunch, unless you have a coupon for a free lunch...or someone gives you a lunch...never mind.
John Adams
Image
There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution.
John Adams
Image
What is to become of an independent statesman, one who will bow the knee to no idol, who will worship nothing as a divinity but truth, virtue, and his country? I will tell you he will be regarded more by posterity than those who worship hounds and horses and although he will not make his own fortune, he will make the fortune of his country.
John Adams
Image
Thomas Jefferson survives.
John Adams