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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.

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
Something
Objects
Disputes
Never
Becomes
Majesty
Time
Somebody
Rebellion
People
Call
Division
Consul
State
Represent
Sedition
President
Object
Faction
States
Dignity
Dispute
Must
Ambition
Factions

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Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
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Power in any Form . . . when directed only by human Wisdom and Benevolence is dangerous.
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[J]udges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men.
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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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My History of the Jesuits is in four volumes.... This society has been a greater calamity to mankind than the French Revolution, or Napoleon's despotism or ideology. It has obstructed progress of reformation and the improvement of the human mind in society much longer and more fatally.
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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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It is folly to anticipate evils, and madness to create imaginary ones.
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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.
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I am quite content to come home and go to Farming, be a select Man, and owe no Man any Thing but good Will. There I can get a little health and teach my Boys to be Lawyers.
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I drink no cider, but feast on Philadelphia beer.
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I consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for public service.
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[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.
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The government of the United States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.
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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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It would be an absurdity for jurors to be required to accept the judge's view of the law, against their own opinion, judgment, and conscience.
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Mr. Jefferson has reason to reflect upon himself. How he will get rid of his remorse in his retirement, I know not. He must know that he leaves the government infinitely worse than he found it, and that from his own error or ignorance.
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When economic power became concentrated in a few hands, then political power flowed to those possessors and away from the citizens, ultimately resulting in an oligarchy or tyranny.
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This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.
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. . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.
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Yesterday, the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.
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