Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
Author
John Adams
39 quotations
About John Adams
John Adams was a Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain. During the latter part of the Revolutionary War and in the early years of the new nation, he served the Continental Congress of the United States as a senior diplomat in Europe. Adams was the first vice president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. He was a dedicated diarist…
Read on Wikipedia → Find books by John AdamsI must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
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.
Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
The happiness of society is the end of government.
Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.
Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.
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Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
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.
Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
In politics the middle way is none at all.
All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of th…
A government of laws, and not of men.
The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essentia…
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.
Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.
Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.
Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.
When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of y…
The happiness of society is the end of government.
Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.