John Adams

"A free government cannot endure very long if the tendency of the laws is to create a nobility."

"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud."

"Meddling is the most hateful conduct we can pursue toward one another."

"The true curse of slavery is not work but the curse of being commanded."

"I have long been of opinion that the true end of life is not happiness but rather virtue."

"The preservation of liberty depends upon the intellectual and moral character of the people."

"A statesman's duty is to act according to the general good of all."

"The science of government is the science of experiment."

"Facts are stubborn things; they cannot be altered by our wishes."

"A single man who attempts to lead an orchestra with just a baton looks silly enough, but what about an entire state?"

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge and sensibility in the people."

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people; it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

"The happiness of society is the end of government."

"Remember that you are always the government."

"The true foundation of theology is to ascertain the character of God."

"We should begin by setting conscience aside, for conscience always revolts at cruelty and torture."

"The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, until they arrive at a period that ought to be secured by law for the union of the sexes, ought to be the care and expense of the public."

"Ambition is the surest mark of corruption in a man."

"Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war."

"You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket."

"Advertising is the modern substitute for argument."

"The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of immense importance to the happiness of this country."

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

"There are few instances of a man becoming more wicked and corrupt as he grows older than he was in his youth."

"I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence."

"That enthusiasm, which marks the creations of genius, is a power which all men do not possess."

"My best wishes are with you in private life, and I trust it will be happier than public life."

"Humanity has a natural bias either to atheism or to superstition; to refuse all religion or to accept but little."

"The greatest part of the errors and follies to which mankind are subject, are owing entirely to false estimates of the comparative worth of different objects."

"He who is not liberal in his sentiments cannot be wise."