Quotes from John Adams

National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman, and that there is an obligation to perform such a duty absolutely irrespective of party politics or factional differences.

Knowledge in the head and virtue in the heart, time devoted to study or business, instead of show and pleasure, are the way to be useful and consequently happy.

One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress.

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.

There never was yet a people who must not have somebody or something to represent the dignity of the state.

The whole drama of the world is such tragedy that I am weary of the spectacle.

A government of laws, and not of men.

There are persons whom in my heart I despise, others I abhor. Yet I am not obliged to inform the one of my contempt, nor the other of my detestation. This kind of dissimulation...is a necessary branch of wisdom, and so far from being immoral...that it is a duty and a virtue.

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.

As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it.

It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, 'whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,' and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.

Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.