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John Adams

b: Braintree, Massachusetts. Died: Quincy, Massachusetts., Oct 30, 1735

d: , Jul 4, 1826

"The Atlas of Independenc" American. US President. Signed Declaration of Independence, 1776; second US president, 1797-1801; helped negotiate Treaty of Paris, 1793, ending American Revolution.

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... a revolution of government is the strongest proof that can be given by a people of their virtue and good sense.

But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

Grief drives men to serious reflection, sharpens the understanding and softens the heart.

I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.

I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.

I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one man is a shame, two is a lawfirm, and three or more is a congress.

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.

Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.

Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyranical and cruel as unlimited despots.

No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it.

The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.

The middle way is no way at all. If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves in groping for the middle way.

The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.

The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.

There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.