John Quincy Adams Quotes

Civil liberty can be established on no foundation of human reason which will not at the same time demonstrate the right of religious freedom.

Try and fail,but don't fail to try.

A gentleman of one of the first fortunes upon the continent ... sacrificing his ease, and hazarding all in the cause of his country.

A stout heart, a clear conscience, and never despair.

The extremes of opulence and of want are more remarkable, and more constantly obvious, in [Great Britain] than in any other place that I ever saw.

A man's diary is a record in youth of his sentiments, in middle age of his actions, in old age of his reflections.

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.

Duty is ours, results are God's.

I told him it was law logic-an artificial system of reasoning, exclusively used in courts of justice, but good for nothing anywhere else.

The gigantic intellect, the envious temper, the ravenous ambition and the rotten heart of Daniel Webster.

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.

The great object of the institution of civil government is the improvement of those who are parties to the social compact.

The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived.

The best guarantee against the abuse of power consists in the freedom, the purity, and the frequency of popular elections.

The four most miserable years of my life were my four years in the presidency.

The public history of all countries, and all ages, is but a sort of mask, richly colored. The interior working of the machinery must be foul.

I have to study politics and war so that my sons can study mathematics, commerce and agriculture, so their sons can study poetry, painting and music.

The Law given from Sinai [The Ten Commandments] was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code.

The art of making love, muffled up in furs, in the open air, with the thermometer at Zero, is a Yankee invention.

Whether to the nation or to the state, no service can be or ever will be rendered by a more able or a more faithful public servant.

We know the redemption must come.

Roll, years of promise, rapidly roll round, till not a slave shall on this earth be found.

Idleness is sweet, and its consequences are cruel.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

No book in the world deserves to be so unceasingly studied, and so profoundly meditated upon as the Bible.

I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong.

The law is an artificial human construct, quite arbitrary, and of absolutely no use anywhere else but in a court of law!

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone.

I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.

Those who take oaths to politically powerful secret societies cannot be depended on for loyalty to a democratic republic.

Though it cost the blood of millions of white men, let it come. Let justice be done.

To believe that everyone is honest is folly, but to believe that no one is honest is worse.

The declaration that our People are hostile to a government made by themselves, for themselves, and conducted by themselves, is an insult.

There is such seduction in a library of good books that I cannot resist the temptation to luxuriate in reading.

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.

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.

Slavery is the great and foul stain upon the North American Union.

The Bible contains the revelation of the will of God. It contains the history of the creation of the world, and of mankind.

Individual liberty is individual power.

To live without having a Cicero and a Tacitus at hand seems to me as if it was aprivation of one of my limbs.

This is the last of earth! I am content.

Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.

Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will be America's heart, her benedictions and her prayers.

The magistrate is the servant not of his own desires, not even of the people, but of his God

Where annual elections end where slavery begins.

I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year.

Our Constitution rests on the good sense and the respect of the American people.

The freedom of the press should be inviolate.

[I believe in the] rebuilding of Judea as an independent nation.

The firmest security of peace is the preparation during peace of the defenses of war.

We understand now, we've been made to understand, and to embrace the understanding that who we are is who we were.

The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.

Death fixes forever the relation existing between the departed spirit and the survivors upon earth.

Thus situated, the perilous experiment must be made. Let me make it with full deliberations, and be prepared for the consequences.

Every temptation is an opportunity of our getting nearer to God.

May our country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.

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

Whoever tells the best story wins.

From the experience of the past we derive instructive lessons for the future.

America ... goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

A stranger would think that the people of the United States had no other occupation than electioneering.

There is nothing so deep and nothing so shallow which political enmity will not turn to account.

The manners of women are the surest criterion by which to determine whether a republican government is practicable in a nation or not.

I would much rather be found guilty of making a serious mistake in judgment, than to be accused of being even a little bit insincere.

It has been my custom for many years to read the Bible in its entirety once a year

Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Saviour?

All that I am
my mother made me.

The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.

His face is livid, gaunt his whole body, his breath is green with gall; his tongue drips poison.

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

The will of the people is the source and the happiness of the people the end of all legitimate government upon earth.

Life is a problem; mortal man was made to solve the solemn problem right or wrong.

Posterity
you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.

America is a friend of freedom everywhere, but a custodian only of our own.

To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so, is something worse.

Westward the star of empire takes its way.