Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of...
When writing the constitution for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, John Adams wrote:I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged...
Politeness, delicacy [and] decency ... are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery, and cowardice.
player: Can I reach it with a five iron? caddie: Eventually.
Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.
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.
A taste for literature and a turn for business, united in the same person, never fails to make a great man.
Be it remembered, that liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we have not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us at the expense of their...
Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.
Swim or sink live or die survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination.
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.
Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.
Property monopolized or in the possession of a few is a curse to mankind.
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.
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 ye...
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 y...
Admire and adore the Author of the telescopic universe, love and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen ill, and increase good, but never assume to comprehend.
All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the...
You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.