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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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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
Horse
Paine
Race
Simile
Men
Stern
Time
Wooden
Like
Borrow
Chase
Toms
Legs

More quotes by 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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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
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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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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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If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
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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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The hope of a Christian is inseparable from his faith. Whoever believes in the Divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures must hope that the religion of Jesus shall prevail throughout the earth.
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Civil liberty can be established on no foundation of human reason which will not at the same time demonstrate the right of religious freedom.
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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.
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...he [Muhammad] declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind...The precept of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God.
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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.
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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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The firmest security of peace is the preparation during peace of the defenses of war.
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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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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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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I inhabit a weak, frail, decayed tenement battered by the winds and broken in on by the storms, and, from all I can learn, the landlord does not intend to repair.
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There is such seduction in a library of good books that I cannot resist the temptation to luxuriate in reading.
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The manners of women are the surest criterion by which to determine whether a republican government is practicable in a nation or not.
John Quincy Adams
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All the public business in Congress now connects itself with intrigues, and there is great danger that the whole government will degenerate into a struggle of cabals.
John Quincy Adams