Background Image

...

It Should Be Your Care, Therefore, And Mine, To Elevate The Minds Of Our Children And Exalt Their Courage; To Accelerate And Animate Their Industry And Activity; To Excite In Them An Habitual Contempt Of Meanness, Abhorrence Of Injustice And Inhumanity, And An Ambition To Excel In Every Capacity, Faculty, And Virtue. If We Suffer Their Minds To Grovel And Creep In Infancy, They Will Grovel All Their Lives.

-John Adams

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

It Should Be Your

John Adams

...

It Should Be Your Care, Therefore, And Mine, To Elevate The Minds Of Our Children And Exalt Their Courage; To Accelerate And Animate Their Industry And Activity; To Excite In Them An Habitual Contempt Of Meanness, Abhorrence Of Injustice And Inhumanity, And An Ambition To Excel In Every Capacity, Faculty, And Virtue. If We Suffer Their Minds To Grovel And Creep In Infancy, They Will Grovel All Their Lives.

Views: 81489

Topic

More From John Adams

As Good Government Is An Empire Of Laws, How Shall Your Laws Be Made? In A Large Society, Inhabiting An Extensive Country, It Is Impossible That The Whole Should Assemble To Make Laws. The First Necessary Step, Then, Is To Depute Power From The Many To A Few Of The Most Wise And Good.

I Must Judge For Myself, But How Can I Judge, How Can Any Man Judge, Unless His Mind Has Been Opened And Enlarged By Reading.

Ideology Is The Science Of Idiots.

A Question Arises Whether All The Powers Of Government, Legislative, Executive, And Judicial, Shall Be Left In This Body? I Think A People Cannot Be Long Free, Nor Ever Happy, Whose Government Is In One Assembly.

We Should Begin By Setting Conscience Free. When All Men Of All Religions Shall Enjoy Equal Liberty, Property, And An Equal Chance For Honors And Power We May Expect That Improvements Will Be Made In The Human Character And The State Of Society.

By The Former Of These (canon Law), The Most Refined, Sublime, Extensive, And Astonishing Constitution Of Policy That Ever Was Conceived By The Mind Of Man Was Framed By The Romish Clergy For The Aggrandizement Of Their Own Order.

I Shall Have Liberty To Think For Myself Without Molesting Others Or Being Molested Myself.

Positive Atheism

My History Of The Jesuits Is Not Elegantly Written, But Is Supported By Unquestionable Authorities, Is Very Particular And Very Horrible. Their Restoration Is Indeed "a Step Toward Darkness," Cruelty, Perfidy, Despotism, Death And I Wish We Were Out Of Danger Of Bigotry And Jesuitism.

If National Pride Is Ever Justifiable Or Excusable It Is When It Springs, Not From Power Or Riches, Grandeur Or Glory, But From Conviction Of National Innocence, Information And Benevolence.

Let The Human Mind Loose. It Must Be Loose. It Will Be Loose. Superstition And Dogmatism Cannot Confine It.

Public Virtue Cannot Exist In A Nation Without Private, And Public Virtue Is The Only Foundation Of Republics. There Must Be A Positive Passion For The Public Good, The Public Interest, Honour, Power And Glory, Established In The Minds Of The People, Or There Can Be No Republican Government, Nor Any Real Liberty: And This Public Passion Must Be Superiour To All Private Passions.

Government Is Instituted For The Common Good; For The Protection, Safety, Prosperity, And Happiness Of The People; And Not For Profit, Honor, Or Private Interest Of Any One Man, Family, Or Class Of Men; Therefore, The People Alone Have An Incontestable, Unalienable, And Indefeasible Right To Institute Government; And To Reform, Alter, Or Totally Change The Same, When Their Protection, Safety, Prosperity, And Happiness Require It.

As Much As I Converse With Sages And Heroes, They Have Very Little Of My Love And Admiration. I Long For Rural And Domestic Scene, For The Warbling Of Birds And The Prattling Of My Children.

Thanks Be To God, That He Gave Me Stubborness, When I Know I Am Right.

The United States Of America Have Exhibited, Perhaps, The First Example Of Governments Erected On The Simple Principles Of Nature. . . . [in] The Formation Of The American Governments . . . It Will Never Be Pretended That Any Persons Employed In That Service Had Interviews With The Gods, Or Were In Any Degree Under The Influence Of Heaven. . . . These Governments Were Contrived Merely By The Use Of Reason And The Senses.

Farther I Could Find It In My Heart To Wish That You Had Been At The Head Of A Hundred Thousand Israelites . . . & Marching With Them Into Judea & Making A Conquest Of That Country & Restoring Your Nation To The Dominion Of It. For I Really Wish The Jews Again In Judea An Independent Nation.

The True Source Of Our Sufferings Has Been Our Timidity.

What Is To Become Of An Independent Statesman, One Who Will Bow The Knee To No Idol, Who Will Worship Nothing As A Divinity But Truth, Virtue, And His Country? I Will Tell You; He Will Be Regarded More By Posterity Than Those Who Worship Hounds And Horses; And Although He Will Not Make His Own Fortune, He Will Make The Fortune Of His Country.

No Truth Is More Clearly Taught In The Volume Of Inspiration, Nor Any More Fully Demonstrated By The Experience Of All Ages, Than That A Deep Sense And A Due Acknowledgment Of The Governing Providence Of A Supreme Being And The Accountableness Of Men To Him As The Searcher Of Hearts And Righteous Distributor Of Rewards And Punishments Are Conducive Equally To The Happiness And Rectitude Of Individuals And To The Well Being Of Communities.

Will You Tell Me How To Prevent Riches From Producing Luxury? Will You Tell Me How To Prevent Luxury From Producing Effeminacy, Intoxication, Extravagance, Vice And Folly?

I Sometimes, In My Sprightly Moments, Consider Myself, In My Great Chair At School, As Some Dictator At The Head Of A Commonwealth. In This Little State I Can Discover All The Great Geniuses, All The Surprising Actions And Revolutions Of The Great World In Miniature. I Have Several Renowned Generals But Three Feet High, And Several Deep-projecting Politicians In Petticoats. I Have Others Catching And Dissecting Flies, Accumulating Remarkable Pebbles, Cockleshells, Etc., With As Ardent Curiosity As Any Virtuoso In The Royal Society.

The Constitution Is ...the Greatest Single Effort Of National Deliberation That The World Has Ever Seen

I Do Not Say That Democracy Has Been More Pernicious On The Whole, And In The Long Run, Than Monarchy Or Aristocracy. Democracy Has Never Been And Never Can Be So Durable As Aristocracy Or Monarchy; But While It Lasts, It Is More Bloody Than Either.

Democracies Have

When Economic Power Became Concentrated In A Few Hands, Then Political Power Flowed To Those Possessors And Away From The Citizens, Ultimately Resulting In An Oligarchy Or Tyranny.

Liberty Can No More Exist Without Virtue And Independence Than The Body Can Live And Move Without A Soul.

God Is An Essence That We Know Nothing Of. Until This Awful Blasphemy Is Got Rid Of, There Never Will Be Any Liberal Science In The World.

What Other Form Of Government, Indeed, Can So Well Deserve Our Esteem And Love?

We Have No Government Armed With Power Capable Of Contending With Human Passions Unbridled By Morality And Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge Or Gallantry Would Break The Strongest Cords Of Our Constitution As A Whale Goes Through A Net. Our Constitution Is Designed Only For A Moral And Religious People. It Is Wholly Inadequate For Any Other.

The Rights Of Englishmen Are Derived From God, Not From King Or Parliament, And Would Be Secured By The Study Of History, Law, And Tradition.

He Is Too Illiterate, Unread, Unlearned For His Station And Reputation.

It Is Not Only The Juror's Right, But His Duty To Find The Verdict According To His Own Best Understanding, Judgment And Conscience, Though In Direct Opposition To The Instruction Of The Court.

A Government Of Laws, And Not Of Men.

Because Power Corrupts, Society's Demands For Moral Authority And Character Increase As The Importance Of The Position Increases.

Virtue Is Not Always Amiable.

[l]iberty Must At All Hazards Be Supported. We Have A Right To It, Derived From Our Maker. But If We Had Not, Our Fathers Have Earned And Bought It For Us, At The Expense Of Their Ease, Their Estates, Their Pleasure, And Their Blood.

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.

As The Government Of The United States Of America Is Not In Any Sense Founded On The Christian Religion, - As It Has In Itself No Character Of Enmity Against The Laws, Religion Or Tranquility Of Musselmen, - And As The Said States Never Have Entered Into Any War Or Act Of Hostility Against Any Mehomitan Nation, It Is Declared By The Parties That No Pretext Arising From Religious Opinions Shall Ever Produce An Interruption Of The Harmony Existing Between The Two Countries.

We Hold That Each Man Is The Best Judge Of His Own Interest.

It Is Folly To Anticipate Evils, And Madness To Create Imaginary Ones.

Did You Ever See A Portrait Of A Great Man Without Perceiving Strong Traits Of Pain And Anxiety?

If My Superiors Shall Permit Me To Come Home, I Hope It Will Be Soon; If They Mean I Should Stay Abroad, I Am Not Able To Say What I Shall Do, Until I Know In What Capacity. One Thing Is Certain, That I Will Not Live Long Without My Family.

What A Pity It Is That Our Congress Had Not Known This Discovery, And That Alexander Hamilton’s Projects Of Raising An Army Of Fifty Thousand Men, Ten Thousand Of Them To Be Cavalry And His Projects Of Sedition Laws And Alien Laws And Of New Taxes To Support His Army, All Arose From A Superabundance Of Secretions Which He Could Not Find Whores Enough To Draw Off! And That The Same Vapours Produced His Lyes And Slanders By Which He Totally Destroyed His Party Forever And Finally Lost His Life In The Field Of Honor.

The Executive Shall Never Exercise The Legislative And Judicial Powers, Or Either Of Them, To The End That It May Be A Government Of Laws And Not Of Men.

In Days Of Yore, The Poet's Pen From Wing Of Bird Was Plunder'd, Perhaps Of Goose, But Now And Then, From Jove's Own Eagle Sunder'd. But Now, Metallic Pens Disclose Alone The Poet's Numbers; In Iron Inspiration Glows, Or With The Poet Slumbers.

Whenever Serious Art Loses Track Of Its Roots In The Vernacular, Then It Begins To Atrophy.

Human Passions Unbridled By Morality And Religion...would Break The Stronges Cords Of Our Constitution As A Whale Goes Through A Net.

We Are In The The Very Midst Of A Revolution, The Most Complete, Unexpected And Remarkable Of Any In The History Of Nations.

It Already Appears, That There Must Be In Every Society Of Men Superiors And Inferiors, Because God Has Laid In The Constitution And Course Of Nature The Foundations Of The Distinction.

But How Has It Happened That Millions Of Fables, Tales, Legends Have Been Blended With Both Jewish And Christian Revelation That Have Made Them The Most Bloody Religion That Ever Existed?

A Desire To Be Observed, Considered, Esteemed, Praised, Beloved, And Admired By His Fellows Is One Of The Earliest As Well As The Keenest Dispositions Discovered In The Heart Of Man.

The Good Of The Governed Is The End, And Rewards And Punishments Are The Means, Of All Government. The Government Of The Supreme And All-perfect Mind, Over All His Intellectual Creation, Is By Proportioning Rewards To Piety And Virtue, And Punishments To Disobedience And Vice. ... The Joys Of Heaven Are Prepared, And The Horrors Of Hell In A Future State, To Render The Moral Government Of The Universe Perfect And Complete. Human Government Is More Or Less Perfect, As It Approaches Nearer Or Diverges Further From An Imitation Of This Perfect Plan Of Divine And Moral Government.

As The Happiness Of The People Is The Sole End Of Government, So The Consent Of The People Is The Only Foundation Of It.

The Furnace Of Affliction Produces Refinement In States As Well As Individuals. And The New Governments We Are Assuming In Every Part Will Require A Purification From Our Vices, And An Augmentation Of Our Virtues, Or There Will Be No Blessings.

The National Defense Is One Of The Cardinal Duties Of A Statesman.

Mr. Jefferson Has Reason To Reflect Upon Himself. How He Will Get Rid Of His Remorse In His Retirement, I Know Not. He Must Know That He Leaves The Government Infinitely Worse Than He Found It, And That From His Own Error Or Ignorance.

I Am Well Pleased With What I Hear Of You: The Principal Satisfaction I Can Expect In Life, In Future Will Be In Your Good Behavior And That Of My Other Children. My Hopes From All Of You Are Very Agreable. God Grant, I May Not Be Disappointed.

We May... Affirm That The Balance Of Power In A Society Accompanies The Balance Of Property In Land. The Only Possible Way, Then, Of Preserving The Balance Of Power On The Side Of Liberty And Public Virtue Is To Make The Acquisition Of Land Easy To Every Member Of Society; To Make A Division Of The Land Into Small Quantities, So That The Multitude May Be Possessed Of Landed Estates.

Politics Are The Divine Science, After All.

The Deliberate Union Of So Great And Various A People In Such A Place, Is Without All Partiality Or Prejudice, If Not The Greatest Exertion Of Human Understanding, The Greatest Single Effort Of National Deliberation That The World Has Ever Seen.

Public Business Must Always Be Done By Somebody. It Will Be Done By Somebody Or Other. If Wise Man Decline, Others Will Not; If Honest Man Refuse It, Others Will Not.

Men Must Be Ready, They Must Pride Themselves And Be Happy To Sacrifice Their Private Pleasures, Passions And Interests, Nay, Their Private Friendships And Dearest Connections, When They Stand In Competition With The Rights Of Society.

The History Of Our Revolution Will Be One Continued Lye From One End To The Other. The Essence Of The Whole Will Be That Dr Franklins Electrical Rod, Smote The Earth And Out Spring General Washington. That Franklin Electrified Him With His Rod - And Thence Forward These Two Conducted All The Policy Negotiations Legislation And War.

You May Have The Bishop Pair But I Have The Ultimate Advantage; I Am The Better Player!

I Do Not Like The Reappearance Of The Jesuits.... Shall We Not Have Regular Swarms Of Them Here, In As Many Disguises As Only A King Of The Gipsies Can Assume, Dressed As Printers, Publishers, Writers And Schoolmasters? If Ever There Was A Body Of Men Who Merited Damnation On Earth And In Hell, It Is This Society Of Loyola's. Nevertheless, We Are Compelled By Our System Of Religious Toleration To Offer Them An Asylum.

Public Affairs Go On Pretty Much As Usual: Perpetual Chicanery And Rather More Personal Abuse Than There Used To Be.

Since Natural Law Was Thought To Be Accessible To The Ordinary Man, The Theory Invited Each Juror To Inquire For Himself Whether A Particular Rule Of Law Was Consonant With Principles Of Higher Law. This View Is Reflected In John Adams' Statement That It Would Be An 'absurdity' For Jurors To Be Required To Accept The Judge's View Of The Law, 'against Their Own Opinion, Judgment, And Conscience.'

I Drink No Cider, But Feast On Philadelphia Beer.

A Constitution Founded On These Principles Introduces Knowledge Among The People, And Inspires Them With A Conscious Dignity Becoming Freemen; A General Emulation Takes Place, Which Causes Good Humor, Sociability, Good Manners, And Good Morals To Be General. That Elevation Of Sentiment Inspired By Such A Government, Makes The Common People Brave And Enterprising. That Ambition Which Is Inspired By It Makes Them Sober, Industrious, And Frugal.

The Holy Ghost Carries On The Whole Christian System In This Earth. Not A Baptism, Not A Marriage, Not A Sacrament Can Be Administered But By The Holy Ghost... There Is No Authority Civil Or Religious: There Can Be No Legitimate Government But What Is Administered By This Holy Ghost. There Can Be No Salvation Without It. All, Without It Is Rebellion And Perdition, Or In More Orthodox Words Damnation.

If The Multitude Is Possessed Of The Balance Of Real Estate, The Multitude Will Have The Balance Of Power, And In That Case The Multitude Will Take Care Of The Liberty, Virtue, And Interest Of The Multitude In All Acts Of Government.

But All Provisions That He (god) Has Made For The Gratification Of Our Senses…are Much Inferior To The Provision, The Wonderful Provision That He Has Made For The Gratification Of Our Nobler Powers Of Intelligence And Reason. He Has Given Us Reason To Find Out The Truth, And The Real Design And True End Of Our Existence.

I Will Insist That The Hebrews Have Done More To Civilize Man Than Any Other Nation.

But What Do We Mean By The American Revolution? Do We Mean The American War? The Revolution Was Effected Before The War Commenced. The Revolution Was In The Minds And Hearts Of The People; A Change In Their Religious Sentiments, Of Their Duties And Obligations ... This Radical Change In The Principles, Opinions, Sentiments, And Affections Of The People Was The Real American Revolution.

Rulers Are No More Than Attorneys, Agents, And Trustees, For The People; And If The Cause, The Interest And Trust, Is Insidiously Betrayed, Or Wantonly Trifled Away, The People Have A Right To Revoke The Authority That They Themselves Have Deputed, And To Constitute Abler And Better Agents, Attorneys, And Trustees.

The Appearance Of Religion Only On Sunday Proves That It Is Only An Appearance.

Let Us Hear The Dangers Of Thralldom To Our Consciences From Ignorance, Extreme Poverty, And Dependence; In Short, From Civil And Political Slavery. Let Us See Delineated Before Us The True Map Of Man. Let Us Hear The Dignity Of His Nature, And The Noble Rank He Holds Among The Works Of God-that Consenting To Slavery Is A Sacrilegious Breach Of Trust, As Offensive In The Sight Of God As It Is Derogatory From Our Own Honor Or Interest Or Happiness-and That God Almighty Has Promulgated From Heaven Liberty, Peace, And Goodwill To Man!

The Question Before The Human Race Is, Whether The God Of Nature Shall Govern The World By His Own Laws, Or Whether Priests And Kings Shall Rule It By Fictitious Miracles?

Nip The Shoots Of Arbitrary Power In The Bud, Is The Only Maxim Which Can Ever Preserve The Liberties Of Any People. When The People Give Way, Their Deceivers, Betrayers And Destroyers Press Upon Them So Fast That There Is No Resisting Afterwards. The Nature Of The Encroachments Is To, Grow Every Day More Encroaching; Like A Cancer, It Eats Faster And Faster Every Hour.

Those Who Trade Liberty For Security Have Neither.

Suppose A Nation, Rich And Poor, High And Low, Ten Millions In Number, All Assembled Together; Not More Than One Or Two Millions Will Have Lands, Houses, Or Any Personal Property; If We Take Into The Account The Women And Children, Or Even If We Leave Them Out Of The Question, A Great Majority Of Every Nation Is Wholly Destitute Of Property, Except A Small Quantity Of Clothes, And A Few Trifles Of Other Movables.

Individuals Have Conquered Themselves. Nations And Large Bodies Of Men, Never.

Democracies Have

The Universal Object And Idol Of Men Of Letters Is Reputation.

The Arts And Sciences, In General, During The Three Or Four Last Centuries, Have Had A Regular Course Of Progressive Improvement. The Inventions In Mechanic Arts, The Discoveries In Natural Philosophy, Navigation And Commerce, And The Advancement Of Civilization And Humanity, Have Occasioned Changes In The Condition Of The World And The Human Character Which Would Have Astonished The Most Refined Nations Of Antiquity. A Continuation Of Similar Exertions Is Everyday Rendering Europe More And More Like One Community, Or Single Family.

Abuse Of Words Has Been The Great Instrument Of Sophistry And Chicanery, Of Party, Faction, And Division Of Society.

Unnecessary War

I Read My Eyes Out, And Cant Read Half Enough Neither. The More One Reads The More One Sees We Have To Read.

My Country Has Contrived For Me The Most Insignificant Office That Ever The Invention Of Man Contrived Or His Imagination Conceived.

I Pray Heaven To Bestow The Best Of Blessing On This House, And On All That Shall Hereafter Inhabit It. May None But Honest And Wise Men Ever Rule Under This Roof!

Each Individual Of The Society Has A Right To Be Protected By It In The Enjoyment Of His Life, Liberty, And Property, According To Standing Laws.

To Be Good, And To Do Good, Is All We Have To Do.

The Consequences Of These Institutions (the Towns Or Districts, The Congregations, The Schools,and The Militia.) Have Been, That The Inhabitants, Having Acquired From Their Infancy The Habit Of Discussing, Of Deliberating, And Of Judging Of Public Affairs, It Was In These Assemblies Of Towns Or Districts That The Sentiments Of The People Were Formed In The First Place, And Their Resolutions Were Taken From The Beginning To The End Of The Disputes And The War With Great Britain.

Always Stand On Principle Even If You Stand Alone.

It Is An Observation Of One Of The Profoundest Inquirers Into Human Affairs That A Revolution Of Government Is The Strongest Proof That Can Be Given By A People Of Their Virtue And Good Sense.

Ambition Is The Subtlest Beast Of The Intellectual And Moral Field. It Is Wonderfully Adroit In Concealing Itself From Its Owner.

The Die Is Cast. The People Have Passed The River And Cut Away The Bridge. Last Night Three Cargoes Of Tea Were Emptied Into The Harbor. This Is The Grandest Event Which Has Ever Yet Happened Since The Controversy With Britain Opened.

The Fundamental Law Of The Militia Is, That It Be Created, Directed And Commanded By The Laws, And Ever For The Support Of The Laws.

Second Amendment

This Is My Religion ... Joy And Exaltation In My Own Existence ... So Go Ahead And Snarl ... Bite ... Howl, You Calvinistic Divines And All You Who Say I Am No Christian. I Say You Are Not Christian.

There Is No Good Government But What Is Republican. That The Only Valuable Part Of The British Constitution Is So; For The True Idea Of A Republic Is "an Empire Of Laws, And Not Of Men." That, As A Republic Is The Best Of Governments, So That Particular Arrangement Of The Powers Of Society, Or In Other Words, That Form Of Government Which Is Best Contrived To Secure An Impartial And Exact Execution Of The Law, Is The Best Of Republics.

As Unbalanced Parties Of Every Description Can Never Tolerate A Free Inquiry Of Any Kind, When Employed Against Themselves, The License, And Even The Most Temperate Freedom Of The Press, Soon Excite Resentment And Revenge.

This Oration Will Be Read Five Hundred Years Hence With As Much Rapture As It Was Heard. It Ought To Be Read At The End Of Every Century, And Indeed At The End Of Every Year, Forever And Ever.

The Whole Drama Of The World Is Such Tragedy That I Am Weary Of The Spectacle.

As To The History Of The Revolution, My Ideas May Be Peculiar, Perhaps Singular. What Do We Mean By The Revolution? The War? That Was No Part Of The Revolution; It Was Only An Effect And Consequence Of It. The Revolution Was In The Minds Of The People, And This Was Effected From 1760 To 1775, In The Course Of Fifteen Years, Before A Drop Of Blood Was Shed At Lexington.

The Essence Of A Free Government Consists In An Effectual Control Of Rivalries.

If There Is Ever An Amelioration Of The Condition Of Mankind, Philosophers, Theologians, Legislators, Politicians And Moralists Will Find That The Regulation Of The Press Is The Most Difficult, Dangerous And Important Problem They Have To Resolve. Mankind Cannot Now Be Governed Without It, Nor At Present With It.

Power Always Sincerely, Conscientiously, De Très Bon Foi, Believes Itself Right. Power Always Thinks It Has A Great Soul And Vast Views, Beyond The Comprehension Of The Weak.

And Liberty Cannot Be Preserved Without A General Knowledge Among The People Who Have A Right From The Frame Of Their Nature To Knowledge, As Their Great Creator Who Does Nothing In Vain, Has Given Them Understandings And A Desire To Know. But Besides This They Have A Right, An Indisputable, Unalienable, Indefeasible Divine Right To The Most Dreaded And Envied Kind Of Knowledge, I Mean Of The Characters And Conduct Of Their Rulers.

Let The Pulpit Resound With The Doctrines And Sentiments Of Religious Liberty... Let Us Hear The Dignity Of His [man's] Nature, And The Noble Rank He Holds Among The Works Of God... Let It Be Known, That British Liberties Are Not The Grants Of Princes Or Parliaments.

Genius Is Sorrow's Child.

While All Other Sciences Have Advanced, That Of Government Is At A Standstill - Little Better Understood, Little Better Practiced Now Than Three Or Four Thousand Years Ago.

The Divinity Of Jesus Is Made A Convenient Cover For Absurdity. Nowhere In The Gospels Do We Find A Precept For Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, And Whole Carloads Of Other Foolish Trumpery That We Find In Christianity.

Every Problem Is An Opportunity In Disguise.

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.

Property Must Be Secured Or Liberty Cannot Exist. But If Unlimited Or Unbalanced Power Of Disposing Property, Be Put Into The Hands Of Those Who Have No Property, France Will Find, As We Have Found, The Lamb Committed To The Custody Of The World. In Such A Case, All The Pathetic Exhortations And Addresses Of The National Assembly To The People, To Respect Property, Will Be Regarded No More Than The Warbles Of The Songsters Of The Forest.

Mr. Adams, Describing A Conversation With Jonathan Sewall In 1774, Says: "i Answered That The Die Was Now Cast; I Had Passed The Rubicon. Swim Or Sink, Live Or Die, Survive Or Perish With My Country Was My Unalterable Determination."

If We Take A Survey Of The Greatest Actions...in The World...we Shall Find The Authors Of Them All To Have Been Persons Whose Brains Had Been Shaken Out Of Their Natural Position.

As The Safety And Prosperity Of Nations Ultimately And Essentially Depend On The Protection And The Blessing Of Almighty God, And The National Acknowledgment Of This Truth Is Not Only An Indispensable Duty Which The People Owe To Him.

Be Not Intimidated... Nor Suffer Yourselves To Be Wheedled Out Of Your Liberties By Any Pretense Of Politeness, Delicacy, Or Decency. These, As They Are Often Used, Are But Three Different Names For Hypocrisy, Chicanery And Cowardice.

When Philosophic Reason Is Clear And Certain By Intuition Or Necessary Induction, No Subsequent Revelation Supported By Prophecies Or Miracles Can Supersede It.

. . . Thirteen Governments [of The Original States] Thus Founded On The Natural Authority Of The People Alone, Without A Pretence Of Miracle Or Mystery, And Which Are Destined To Spread Over The Northern Part Of That Whole Quarter Of The Globe, Are A Great Point Gained In Favor Of The Rights Of Mankind.

[a] Republic . . . [is] A Government, In Which The Property Of The Public, Or People, And Of Every One Of Them Was Secure And Protected By Law . . . Implies Liberty; Because Property Cannot Be Secured Unless The Man Be At Liberty To Acquire, Use Or Part With It, At His Discretion, And Unless He Have His Personal Liberty Of Life And Limb, Motion And Rest, For That Purpose.

We Shall Convince France And The World, That We Are Not A Degraded People, Humiliated Under A Colonial Spirit Of Fear And A Sense Of Inferiority, Fitted To Be The Miserable Instruments Of Foreign Influence, And Regardless Of National Honor, Character, And Interest.

Conclude Not From All This That I Have Renounced The Christian Religion. . . . Far From It. I See In Every Page Something To Recommend Christianity In Its Purity, And Something To Discredit Its Corruptions. . . . The Ten Commandments And The Sermon On The Mount Contain My Religion.

Government Has No Right To Hurt A Hair Of The Head Of An Atheist, For His Opinions. Let Him Have A Care Of His Practices.

Let Them Revere Nothing But Religion, Morality And Liberty.

Founding Fathers Religion

We Shall, By And By, Want A World Of Hemp More For Our Own Consumption.

Let Frugality And Industry Be Our Virtues.

Without Wishing To Damp The Ardor Of Curiosity Or Influence The Freedom Of Inquiry, I Will Hazard A Prediction That, After The Most Industrious And Impartial Researchers, The Longest Liver Of You All Will Find No Principles, Institutions Or Systems Of Education More Fit In General To Be Transmitted To Your Posterity Than Those You Have Received From Your Ancestors.

Vanity, I Am Sensible, Is My Cardinal Vice And Cardinal Folly; And I Am In Continual Danger, When In Company, Of Being Led An Ignis Fatuus Chase By It.

Nothing Is More Dreaded Than The National Government Meddling With Religion.

Children Should Be Educated And Instructed In The Principles Of Freedom. Aristotle Speaks Plainly To This Purpose, Saying, 'that The Institution Of Youth Should Be Accommodated To That Form Of Government Under Which They Live; Forasmuch As It Makes Exceedingly For The Preservation Of The Present Government, Whatsoever It Be.

My God! This Is A Revolution! We Have To Offend Someone!

To Suppose Arms In The Hands Of Citizens, To Be Used At Individual Discretion, Except In Private Self-defense, Or By Partial Orders Of Towns, Counties Or Districts Of A State, Is To Demolish Every Constitution, And Lay The Laws Prostrate, So That Liberty Can Be Enjoyed By No Man; It Is A Dissolution Of The Government. The Fundamental Law Of The Militia Is, That It Be Created, Directed And Commanded By The Laws, And Ever For The Support Of The Laws.

But I Must Submit All My Hopes And Fears, To An Overruling Providence, In Which, Unfashionable As The Faith May Be, I Firmly Believe.

Thomas Jefferson Survives.

Have You Ever Found In History, One Single Example Of A Nation, Thoroughly Corrupted, That Was Afterwards Restored To Virtue? And Without Virtue There Can Be No Political Liberty.

I Had Heard My Father Say That He Never Knew A Piece Of Land Run Away Or Break.

My History Of The Jesuits Is In Four Volumes.... This Society Has Been A Greater Calamity To Mankind Than The French Revolution, Or Napoleon's Despotism Or Ideology. It Has Obstructed Progress Of Reformation And The Improvement Of The Human Mind In Society Much Longer And More Fatally.

Liberty, According To My Metaphysics Is A Self-determining Power In An Intellectual Agent. It Implies Thought And Choice And Power.

It Is Much Easier To Pull Down A Government, In Such A Conjuncture Of Affairs As We Have Seen, Than To Build Up, At Such A Season As The Present.

The Divine Science Of Government Is The Science Of Social Happiness, And The Blessings Of Society Depend Entirely On The Constitutions Of Government.

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 Essential Instrument For Civilizing The Nations.

Before Any Great Things Are Accomplished, A Memorable Change Must Be Made In The System Of Education...to Raise The Lower Ranks Of Society Nearer To The Higher.

It Will Be Celebrated... With Pomp And Parade... Bonfires And Illuminations From One End Of This Continent To The Other.

In General, Our Generals Were Outgeneralled.

We Cannot Insure Success, But We Can Deserve It.

Admit That The Press Transferred The Pontificate Of Rome To Henry Viii-admit That The Press Demolished In Some Sort The Feudal System, And Set The Serfs And Villains Free; Admit That The Press Demolished The Monasteries, Nunneries, And Religious Houses; Into Whose Hands Did All These Alienated Baronies, Monasteries, And Religious Houses And Lands Fall? Into The Hands Of The Democracy? Into The Hands Of Serfs And Villains? Serfs And Villains Were The Only Real Democracy In Those Time. No. They Fell Into The Hands Of Other Aristocrats. . . .

I Request That They May Be Considered In Confidence, Until The Members Of Congress Are Fully Possessed Of Their Contents, And Shall Have Had Opportunity To Deliberate On The Consequences Of Their Publication; After Which Time, I Submit Them To Your Wisdom.

Major Greene This Evening Fell Into Some Conversation With Me About The Divinity And Satisfaction Of Jesus Christ. All The Argument He Advanced Was, "that A Mere Creature Or Finite Being Could Not Make Satisfaction To Infinite Justice For Any Crimes," And That "these Things Are Very Mysterious." Thus Mystery Is Made A Convenient Cover For Absurdity.

To Believe All Men Honest Is Folly. To Believe None Is Something Worse.

We Must Not Then Depend Alone Upon The Love Of Liberty In The Soul Of Man For Its Preservation.

We Recognize No Sovereign But God, And No King But Jesus!

This Would Be The Best Of All Possible Worlds, If There Were No Religion In It.

If There Is A God

Tom, Had You And I Been 40 Days With Moses, And Beheld The Great God, And Even If God Himself Had Tried To Tell Us That Three Was One ... And One Equals Three, You And I Would Never Have Believed It. We Would Never Fall Victims To Such Lies.

Set Before Us The Conduct Of Our Own British Ancestors, Who Defended For Us The Inherent Rights Of Mankind Against Foreign And Domestic Tyrants And Usurpers, Against Arbitrary Kings And Cruel Priests; In Short Against The Gates Of Earth And Hell.

The General Principles On Which The Fathers Achieved Independence Were The General Principles Of Christianity

A Native Of America Who Cannot Read Or Write Is . . . As Rare As A Comet Or An Earthquake.

If Worthless Men Are Sometimes At The Head Of Affairs, It Is, I Believe, Because Worthless Men Are At The Tail And The Middle

Negro Slavery Is An Evil Of Colossal Magnitude. I Am Therefore Utterly Averse To The Admission Of Slavery Into The Missouri Territory, And Heartily Wish That Every Constitutional Measure May Be Adopted For The Preservation Of It.

We Have No Constitution Which Functions In The Absence Of A Moral People

Fear Is The Foundation Of Most Governments; But It Is So Sordid And Brutal A Passion, And Renders Men In Whose Breasts It Predominates So Stupid And Miserable, That Americans Will Not Be Likely To Approve Of Any Political Institution Which Is Founded On It.

Your Letters Concerning Miss N. Have Given Me As Much Concern As They Ought-not Knowing The Character Nor What To Advise, But Feeling All A Fathers Tenderness, Longing To Be At Home That I Might Enquire And Consider And Take The Care I Ought.

Riches Attract Attention, Consideration, And Congratulations Of Mankind.

Congratulations

I Must Study Politics And War That My Sons May Have Liberty To Study Mathematics And Philosophy.

Mystery Is Made A Convenient Cover For Absurdity.

Every Measure Of Prudence, Therefore, Ought To Be Assumed For The Eventual Total Extirpation Of Slavery From The United States ... I Have, Throughout My Whole Life, Held The Practice Of Slavery In ... Abhorrence.

The Dons, The Bashaws, The Grandees, The Patricians, The Sachems, The Nabobs, Call Them By What Names You Please, Sigh And Groan And Fret, And Sometimes Stamp And Foam And Curse, But All In Vain. The Decree Is Gone Forth, And It Cannot Be Recalled, That A More Equal Liberty Than Has Prevailed In Other Parts Of The Earth Must Be Established In America.

We Should Be Unfaithful To Ourselves If We Should Ever Lose Sight Of The Danger To Our Liberties If Anything Partial Or Extraneous Should Infect The Purity Of Our Free, Fair, Virtuous, And Independent Elections. If An Election Is To Be Determined By A Majority Of A Single Vote, And That Can Be Procured By A Party Through Artifice Or Corruption, The Government May Be The Choice Of A Party For Its Own Ends, Not Of The Nation For The National Good.

No Man Who Ever Held The Office Of President Would Congratulate A Friend On Obtaining It.

The Most Sensible And Jealous People Are So Little Attentive To Government That There Are No Instances Of Resistance Until Repeated, Multiplied Oppressions Have Placed It Beyond A Doubt That Their Rulers Had Formed Settled Plans To Deprive Them Of Their Liberties; Not To Oppress An Individual Or A Few, But To Break Down The Fences Of A Free Constitution, And Deprive The People At Large Of All Share In The Government, And All The Checks By Which It Is Limited.

A Single Assembly Is Liable To All The Vices, Follies, And Frailties Of An Individual; Subject To Fits Of Humor, Starts Of Passion, Flights Of Enthusiasm, Partialities, Or Prejudice, And Consequently Productive Of Hasty Results And Absurd Judgments. And All These Errors Ought To Be Corrected And Defects Supplied By Some Controlling Power.

I Am Determined To Control Events, Not Be Controlled By Them.

A Single Assembly Is Apt To Grow Ambitious, And After A Time Will Not Hesitate To Vote Itself Perpetual. This Was One Fault Of The Long Parliament; But More Remarkably Of Holland, Whose Assembly First Voted Themselves From Annual To Septennial, Then For Life, And After A Course Of Years, That All Vacancies Happening By Death Or Otherwise, Should Be Filled By Themselves, Without Any Application To Constituents At All.

Neither My Father Or Mother, Grandfather Or Grandmother, Great Grandfather Or Great Grandmother, Nor Any Other Relation That I Know Of, Or Care A Farthing For, Has Been In England These One Hundred And Fifty Years; So That You See I Have Not One Drop Of Blood In My Veins But What Is American.

Pray How Does Your Asparagus Perform?

The Happiness Of Man, As Well As His Dignity, Consists In Virtue.

It Has Ever Been My Hobby-horse To See Rising In America An Empire Of Liberty, And A Prospect Of Two Or Three Hundred Millions Of Freemen, Without One Noble Or One King Among Them. You Say It Is Impossible. If I Should Agree With You In This, I Would Still Say, Let Us Try The Experiment, And Preserve Our Equality As Long As We Can. A Better System Of Education For The Common People Might Preserve Them Long From Such Artificial Inequalities As Are Prejudicial To Society, By Confounding The Natural Distinctions Of Right And Wrong, Virtue And Vice.

There Is But One Element Of Government, And That Is The People. From This Element Spring All Governments. "for A Nation To Be Free, It Is Only Necessary That She Wills It." For A Nation To Be Slave, It Is Only Necessary That She Wills It.

You Will Think Me Transported With Enthusiasm But I Am Not. — I Am Well Aware Of The Toil And Blood And Treasure, That It Will Cost Us To Maintain This Declaration, And Support And Defend These States. — Yet Through All The Gloom I Can See The Rays Of Ravishing Light And Glory. I Can See That The End Is More Than Worth All The Means. And That Posterity Will Tryumph In That Days Transaction, Even Altho We Should Rue It, Which I Trust In God We Shall Not.

In Vain Are Schools, Academies, And Universities Instituted, If Loose Principles And Licentious Habits Are Impressed Upon Children In Their Earliest Years . . . . The Vices And Examples Of The Parents Cannot Be Concealed From The Children. How Is It Possible That Children Can Have Any Just Sense Of The Sacred Obligations Of Morality Or Religion If, From Their Earliest Infancy, They Learn Their Mothers Live In Habitual Infidelity To Their Fathers, And Their Fathers In As Constant Infidelity To Their Mothers.

Great Is The Guilt Of An Unnecessary War.

Remember, Democracy Never Lasts Long. It Soon Wastes, Exhausts, And Murders Itself. There Never Was A Democracy Yet That Did Not Commit Suicide. It Is In Vain To Say That Democracy Is Less Vain, Less Proud, Less Selfish, Less Ambitious, Or Less Avaricious Than Aristocracy Or Monarchy. It Is Not True, In Fact, And Nowhere Appears In History. Those Passions Are The Same In All Men, Under All Forms Of Simple Government, And When Unchecked, Produce The Same Effects Of Fraud, Violence, And Cruelty.

If Aristotle, Livy, And Harrington Knew What A Republic Was, The British Constitution Is Much More Like A Republic Than An Empire. They Define A Republic To Be A Government Of Laws, And Not Of Men. If This Definition Is Just, The British Constitution Is Nothing More Or Less Than A Republic, In Which The King Is First Magistrate. This Office Being Hereditary, And Being Possessed Of Such Ample And Splendid Prerogatives, Is No Objection To The Government's Being A Republic, As Long As It Is Bound By Fixed Laws, Which The People Have A Voice In Making, And A Right To Defend.

I Consider A Decent Respect For Christianity Among The Best Recommendations For Public Service.

What Havoc, Said I To Myself, Would These Manners Make In America! Our Governors, Our Judges, Our Senators Or Representatives, And Even Our Ministers, Would Be Appointed By Harlots, For Money; And Their Judgments, Decrees, And Decisions, Be Sold To Repay Themselves, Or, Perhaps, To Procure The Smiles Of Profligate Females.

[d]emocracy Will Soon Degenerate Into An Anarchy, Such An Anarchy That Every Man Will Do What Is Right In His Own Eyes And No Man's Life Or Property Or Reputation Or Liberty Will Be Secure, And Every One Of These Will Soon Mould Itself Into A System Of Subordination Of All The Moral Virtues And Intellectual Abilities, All The Powers Of Wealth, Beauty, Wit And Science, To The Wanton Pleasures, The Capricious Will, And The Execrable Cruelty Of One Or A Very Few.

If There Is A Form Of Government, Then, Whose Principle And Foundation Is Virtue, Will Not Every Sober Man Acknowledge It Better Calculated To Promote The General Happiness Than Any Other Form?

But Before Any Great Things Are Accomplished, A Memorable Change Must Be Made In The System Of Education And Knowledge Must Become So General As To Raise The Lower Ranks Of Society Nearer To The Higher. The Education Of A Nation, Instead Of Being Confined To A Few Schools & Universities, For The Instruction Of The Few, Must Become The National Care And Expence, For The Information Of The Many.

You Will Never Be Alone With A Poet In Your Pocket.

I Was Very Strenuous For Retaining And Insisting On It [law Of Nature], As A Resource To Which We Might Be Driven By Parliament Much Sooner Than We Were Aware.

I Am Quite Content To Come Home And Go To Farming, Be A Select Man, And Owe No Man Any Thing But Good Will. There I Can Get A Little Health And Teach My Boys To Be Lawyers.

Laws For The Liberal Education Of Youth, Especially Of The Lower Class Of People, Are So Extremely Wise And Useful, That, To A Humane And Generous Mind, No Expense For This Purpose Would Be Thought Extravagant.

I Would Quarrel With Both Parties, And With Every Individual Of Each, Before I Would Subjugate My Understanding, Or Prostitute My Tongue Or Pen To Either.

Popularity, Next To Virtue And Wisdom, Ought To Be Aimed At; For It Is The Dictate Of Wisdom, And Is Necessary To The Practice Of Virtue Inmost.

If "thou Shalt Not Covet," And "thou Shalt Not Steal," Were Not Commandments Of Heaven, They Must Be Made Inviolable Precepts In Every Society, Before It Can Be Civilized Or Made Free.

The Christian Religion As I Understand It Is The Best.

The Jaws Of Power Are Always Open To Devour, And Her Arm Is Always Stretched Out, If Possible, To Destroy The Freedom Of Thinking, Speaking, And Writing.

Elections, Especially Of Representatives And Counselors, Should Be Annual, There Not Being In The Whole Circle Of The Sciences A Maxim More Infallible Than This, "where Annual Elections End, There Slavery Begins." These Great Men ... Should Be (chosen) Once A Year-like Bubbles On The Sea Of Matter Bourne, They Rise, They Break, And To The Sea Return. This Will Teach Them The Great Political Virtues Of Humility, Patience, And Moderation, Without Which Every Man In Power Becomes A Ravenous Beast Of Prey.

Borrowed Eloquence, If It Contains As Good Stuff, Is As Good As Own Eloquence

The Ten Commandments And The Sermon On The Mount Contain My Religion.

Founding Fathers Religion

Modesty Is A Virtue That Can Never Thrive In Public.

Swim Or Sink, Live Or Die, Survive Or Perish With My Country Was My Unalterable Determination.

Trending Author

Category