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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.

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
Enemy
Stout
Turns
Fortresses
Fear
Infirmity
Take
Traitor
Mind
Gates
Storm
Unless
Turn
Fortress

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Slavery is a foul contagion in the human character.
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There is no greater guilt than the unneccessary war.
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Always stand on principle even if you stand alone.
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They shall not be expected to acknowledge us until we have acknowledged ourselves.
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It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.
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I do not like the reappearance of the Jesuits... Nevertheless, we are compelled by our system of religious toleration to offer them an asylum.
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Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
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Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States ... I have, throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in ... abhorrence.
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Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
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There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
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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.
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I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.
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Thomas Jefferson survives.
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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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As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it.
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There never was yet a people who must not have somebody or something to represent the dignity of the state, the majesty of the people, call it what you will - a doge, an avoyer, an archon, a president, a consul, a syndic this becomes at once an object of ambition and dispute, and, in time, of division, faction, sedition, and rebellion.
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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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You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.
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[I] never understood [what a republican government was and] I believe no other man ever did or ever will.
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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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