He wrote as a young man that God's noblest gift was the gift of an inquiring mind.

— John Adams

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.

— John Adams

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. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never 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. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.

— John Adams

If I had refused to institute a negotiation or had not persevered in it, I would have been degraded in my own estimation as a man of honor.

— John Adams

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.

— John Adams

I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.

— John Adams

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.

— John Adams

I must study politics and war that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy geography natural history and naval architecture navigation commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting poetry music architecture statuary tapestry and porcelain.

— John Adams

In esse, I am nothing in posse I am everything.

— John Adams

In politics the middle way is none at all.

— John Adams