Quotes by John Adams

"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak."

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

"The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries."

"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."

"A government of laws, and not of men."

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

"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."

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

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

"When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more."

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

"Fear is the foundation of most governments."

"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."

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