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Occasional war is one of the rigorous instruments in the hands of Providence to give tone to the character of nations.

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
Instruments
Nations
War
Hands
Character
Rigorous
Give
Occasional
Giving
Providence
Tone

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Individual liberty is individual power, and as the power of a community is a mass compounded of individual powers, the nation which enjoys the most freedom must necessarily be in proportion to its numbers the most powerful nation.
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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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The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.
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I say women exhibit the most exalted virtue when they depart from the domestic circle and enter on the concerns of their country, of humanity, and of their G-d!
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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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I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year.
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Westward the star of empire takes its way.
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Where annual elections end where slavery begins.
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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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Religious discord has lost her sting the cumbrous weapons of theological warfare are antiquated: the field of politics supplies the alchymists of our times with materials of more fatal explosion, and the butchers of mankind no longer travel to another world for instruments of cruelty and destruction.
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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.
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Man wants but little here below Nor wants that little long, 'Tis not with me exactly so But 'tis so in the song. My wants are many, and, if told, Would muster many a score And were each wish a mint of gold, I still should long for more.
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The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.
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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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All that I am my mother made me.
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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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Whenever vanity and gaiety, a love of pomp and dress, furniture, equipage, buildings, great company, expensive diversions, and elegant entertainments get the better of the principles and judgments of men and women, there is no knowing where they will stop, nor into what evils, natural, moral, or political, they will lead us.
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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 influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.
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When (an advocate) is not thoroughly acquainted with the real strength and weakness of his cause, he knows not where to choose the most impressive argument. When the mark is shrouded in obscurity, the only substitute for accuracy in the aim is in the multitude of the shafts.
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