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The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.

John Quincy Adams

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John Quincy Adams
Age: 80 †
Born: 1767
Born: July 11
Died: 1848
Died: February 23
6Th U.S. President
Diarist
Diplomat
Lawyer
Politician
Statesperson
Braintree
Massachusetts
John Q. Adams
President Adams
John Adams
J. Q. Adams
J. Adams
JQA
Law
Bind
Happy
Virtuous
Death
Chains
May
Laws
Make
Wise
Never
Liberty
Men
Wisdom
Politics

More quotes by John Quincy Adams

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[I believe in the] rebuilding of Judea as an independent nation.
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May our country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.
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Idleness is sweet, and its consequences are cruel.
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So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society. I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year.
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Those who take oaths to politically powerful secret societies cannot be depended on for loyalty to a democratic republic.
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Whoever tells the best story wins.
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From the day of the Declaration...they (the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of The Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct.
John Quincy Adams
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I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong.
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Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.
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I have myself, for many years, made it a practice to read through the Bible once ever year.... My custom is, to read four to five chapters every morning immediately after rising from my bed. I employs about an hour of my time.
John Quincy Adams
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What is the right of the huntsman to the forest of a thousand miles over which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey? Shall the fields and vallies, which a beneficent God has formed to teem with the life of innumerable multitudes, be condemned to everlasting barrenness?
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My stern chase after time is, to borrow a simile from Tom Paine, like the race of a man with a wooden leg after a horse.
John Quincy Adams
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This hand, to tyrants ever sworn the foe, For Freedom only deals the deadly blow Then sheathes in calm repose the vengeful blade, For gentle peace in Freedom's hallowed shade.
John Quincy Adams
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I told him that I thought it was law logic - an artificial system of reasoning, exclusively used in Courts of justice, but good for nothing anywhere else.
John Quincy Adams
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[America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.
John Quincy Adams
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To believe that everyone is honest is folly, but to believe that no one is honest is worse.
John Quincy Adams
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The American continents, by the free and independent condition that they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonisation byany European powers? In the wars of the Europeanpowers inmattersrelating to ourselves, we have never taken any part nor does it comport with our policy to do so.
John Quincy Adams
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Slavery is the great and foul stain upon the North American Union.
John Quincy Adams
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But America is a great, unwieldy Body. Its Progress must be slow... 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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A gentleman of one of the first fortunes upon the continent...sacrificing his ease, and hazarding all in the cause of his country.
John Quincy Adams