Democracy & Government: Some Advice From The Founders

A Collection Of Relevant Quotes From John Adams

John Adams

(October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) John Adams was an American patriot who served as the second President of the United States(1797–1801) and the first Vice President (1789–97). He was a lawyer, diplomat, statesman, political theorist, and, as a Founding Father, a leader of the movement for American independence from Great Britain. His son, John Quincy Adams served as the 6th President of the U.S.

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

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

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“Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.”

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“Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”

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“Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.”

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“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.”

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“Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.”

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“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

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“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”

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“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.”

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