John Adams

"Virtue alone is a kind of honor; and wherever it is, dignity will follow."

"The mind must not only possess knowledge but the skill to use it."

"To believe all that is possible is to enchain the soul."

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

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

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

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

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

"The only way to guard against the evil of the state is to provide it with just laws and wise men to administer them."

"I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin."

"Revenge is never satisfied with blood; it never obtains the object which it pursues."

"Abuse of words has been the instrument of all sort of mischief."

"There is nothing so mortifying as to fall into the hands of a quack."

"A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything."

"The human heart is the first home of democracy."

"Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war."

"If there is ever to be an amelioration of the condition of mankind, philosophers and theorists must plan it. It cannot be done by moralists and politicians alone."

"Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of intellect."

"Industry and frugality are the means of plenty."

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

"The person who is blessed with the most talent must bear the greatest responsibility."

"Think of the anguish we cause to our parents by our rebellion and ingratitude."

"The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals."

"Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private virtue."

"You are not obliged to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it."

"Objectively, I believe in the science of palmistry."

"Refinement and civilization come through the cultivation of letters."

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

"The true foundation of theology is to ascertain the character of God. It is by the aid of History and Experience that this character is best discovered."

"To be certain of the future, look to the past."