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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.

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
Institutions
Rite
Mankind
Pernicious
Pure
Superstitious
Moral
Benevolence
Powerful
Morals
Rites
Religion
Cruelty
Mingled
Form
Combination
Ferocious
Ever
Charity
Afflicted

More quotes by John Quincy Adams

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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.
John Quincy Adams
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The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code it contained many statutes . . . of universal application-laws essential to the existence of men in society, and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws.
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.
John Quincy Adams
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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.
John Quincy Adams
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There is such seduction in a library of good books that I cannot resist the temptation to luxuriate in reading.
John Quincy Adams
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Those who take oaths to politically powerful secret societies cannot be depended on for loyalty to a democratic republic.
John Quincy Adams
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America... goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.
John Quincy Adams
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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.
John Quincy Adams
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The imagination of a eunuch dwells more and longer upon the material of love than that of man or woman ... supplying, so far as he can, by speculation, the place of pleasures he can no longer enjoy.
John Quincy Adams
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This is the last of earth! I am content.
John Quincy Adams
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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.
John Quincy Adams
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A stranger would think that the people of the United States had no other occupation than electioneering.
John Quincy Adams
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However tiresome to others, the most indefatigable orator is never tedious to himself. The sound of his own voice never loses its harmony to his own ear and among the delusions, which self-love is ever assiduous in attempting to pass upon virtue, he fancies himself to be sounding the sweetest tones
John Quincy Adams
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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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The Law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code.
John Quincy Adams
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If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
John Quincy Adams
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May our country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.
John Quincy Adams
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[I believe in the] rebuilding of Judea as an independent nation.
John Quincy Adams
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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.
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