It is essential…that you should form and adopt certain rules or principles, for the government of your own conduct and temper. Unless you have such rules and principles, there will be numberless occasions on which...

It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore,

Keeping an army in America has been nothing but a public nuisance

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...

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 by...

The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.

There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.

I made the four minutes of the prelude entirely with the sound of hand-tools. At one point it sounds to me like you’re inside an electron accelerator. And I’ve used recordings made by US Marines...

Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.

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. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven...

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

We took the liberty to make some enquiries concerning the ground of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends...

Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.

It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power

That’s what they admire most about the horse, his durability.

The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all...

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

Where annual elections end, there slavery begins

Inequalities of mind and body are so established by God Almighty, in his constitution of human nature, that no art or policy can ever plane them down to a level

A government of laws and not of men

The true source of our sufferings has been our timidity.

A pleasant morning. Saw my classmates Gardner, and Wheeler. Wheeler dined, spent the afternoon, and drank Tea with me. Supped at Major Gardiners, and engag’d to keep School at Bristol, provided Worcester People, at their...

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.

These bickerings of opposite parties, and their mutual reproaches their declamations, their sing-song, their triumphs and defiance, their dismal and prophecies, are all delusion

Borrowed eloquence, if it contains as good stuff, is as good as own eloquence

The old boys are really looking forward to this,

Be not intimidated…nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and...

The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the...

By their actions, the Founding Fathers made clear that their primary concern was religious freedom, not the advancement of a state religion. Individuals, not the government, would define religious faith and practice in the United...

There is no such thing as human wisdom; all is the providence of God

I have lived long enough, and had experience enough of the conduct of governments and people, nations and courts, to be convinced that gratitude, friendship, unsuspecting confidence, and all the amiable passions in human nature,...

We can change it, we will and we must. We don’t have to change parties, we have to change direction. Less taxes and less government when we do those two things we will be able...

While our country remains untainted with the principles and manners which are now producing desolation in so many parts of the world; while she continues sincere, and incapable of insidious and impious policy, we shall...

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.

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

Always stand on principle even if you stand alone.

I agree with you that in politics the middle way is no way at all.

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...

Negro Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude and I am utterly averse to the admission of Slavery into the Missouri Territories.

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...

Did you ever see a portrait of a great man without perceiving strong traits of pain and anxiety?

Jobs and job training will be critical next year. Retraining and education will be key in order for us to be able to keep the companies we have and be able to attract new businesses.

It was a faith-based group that brought him to this country as a refugee from Cuba and sent him on a path toward the American dream,

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.

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...

Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, ‘that these United...

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it

Politics are the divine science, after all

But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your...

There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble...