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The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived.

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
Experience
Shown
Government
Ages
Human
Governments
Humans
Former
Lived
Short
Democracy
Fluctuating
Age
Unstable

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Who but shall learn that freedom is the prize Man still is bound to rescue or maintain That nature's God commands the slave to rise, And on the oppressor's head to break the chain. Roll, years of promise, rapidly roll round, Till not a slave shall on this earth by found.
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To preserve, to improve, and to perpetuate the sources and to direct in their most effective channels the streams which contribute to the public weal is the purpose for which Government was instituted.
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A barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and hardly could spell his own name.... One of our tribe of great men who turn disease to commodity...he craves the sympathy for sickness as a portion of his glory.
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Not stones, nor wood, nor the art of artisans make a state but where men are who know how to take care of themselves, these are cities and walls.
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It is by a thorough knowledge of the whole subject that [people] are enabled to judge correctly of the past and to give a proper direction to the future.
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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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The harmony of the nation is promoted and the whole Union is knit together by the sentiments of mutual respect, the habits of social intercourse, and the ties of personal friendship formed between the representatives of its several parts in the performance of their service at this metropolis.
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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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All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.
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The Constitution had provided that all the public functionaries of the Union...should be under oath or affirmation for its support. The homage of religious faith was thus superadded to all the obligations of temporal law to give it strength.
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Religion, charity, pure benevolence, and morals, mingled up with superstitious rites and ferocious cruelty, form in their combination institutions the most powerful and the most pernicious that have ever afflicted mankind.
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I would much rather be found guilty of making a serious mistake in judgment, than to be accused of being even a little bit insincere.
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This is the last of earth! I am content.
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I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.
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Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.
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Whether to the nation or to the state, no service can be or ever will be rendered by a more able or a more faithful public servant.
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There is nothing so deep and nothing so shallow which political enmity will not turn to account.
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I want a warm and faithful friend, To cheer the adverse hour Who ne'er to flatter will descend, Nor bend the knee to power,- A friend to chide me when I'm wrong, My inmost soul to see And that my friendship prove as strong For him as his for me.
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If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
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