Quote

The frightful engines of ecclesiastical councils, of diabolical malice, and Calvinistical good-nature never failed to terrify me exceedingly whenever I thought of preaching.

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
Nature
Exceedingly
Thought
Malice
Good
Council
Never
Engines
Terrify
Preaching
Ecclesiastical
Failed
Councils
Whenever
Frightful
Atheism
Diabolical

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Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.
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It is much easier to pull down a government, in such a conjuncture of affairs as we have seen, than to build up, at such a season as the present.
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This is my religion ... joy and exaltation in my own existence ... so go ahead and snarl ... bite ... howl, you Calvinistic divines and all you who say I am no Christian. I say you are not Christian.
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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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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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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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Set before us the conduct of our own British ancestors, who defended for us the inherent rights of mankind against foreign and domestic tyrants and usurpers, against arbitrary kings and cruel priests in short against the gates of earth and hell.
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Negro slavery is an evil of colossal magnitude.
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The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation: The doctrine of a supreme, intelligent sovereign of the universe, I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.
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The only way to form an army to be confided in, was a systematic discipline, by which means all men may be made heroes.
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I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.
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Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
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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 have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.
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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.
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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.
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Power must never be trusted without a check.
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They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts.
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The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity
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Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.
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