WIST

The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
“A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America” (1788)

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of the facts and evidence.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
“Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials” (4 Dec 1770)

A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest, as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
“Discourses on Davila: A Series of Papers on Political History,” Gazette of the United States, #4 (1790-1791)

Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
“Novanglus” #3, Boston Gazette (1774)

Metaphysicians and politicians may dispute forever, but they will never find any other moral principle or foundation of rule or obedience, than the consent of governors and governed.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
“Novanglus” #7, Boston Gazette (1775)

A government of laws, and not of men.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
“Novanglus” #7, Boston Gazette (6 Mar 1775)

Adams credited the line to James Harrington (1611-77), who wrote of "the empire of laws and not of men" (The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656)). Adams later used the term in the Massachusetts Constitution, Bill of Rights, article 30 (1780).

Mankind is naturally divided into three sorts; one third of them are animated at the first appearance of danger, and will press forward to meet and examine it; another third are alarmed by it, but will neither advance nor retreat, till they know the nature of it, but stand to meet it. The remaining third will run or fly upon the first thought of it.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
(Attributed)

In R. W. Emerson, Journal (Aug 1851)

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.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
(Attributed)
Cited in some cases as the closing argument while defending the British Soldiers accused of killing 5 colonists in the "Boston Massacre" (usually given as "Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials" (Dec 1770)), but I did not find it in accounts of that defense.

The desire of the esteem of others is as real a want of nature as hunger — and the neglect and contempt of the world as severe a pain as the gout or stone.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Discourses on Davila (1790)
Full text.

The poor man’s conscience is clear; yet he is ashamed. … He feels himself out of the sight of others, groping in the dark. Mankind takes no notice of him: he rambles and wanders unheeded. In the midst of a crowd, at church, in the market … he is in as much obscurity as he would be in a garret or a cellar. He is not disapproved, censured, or reproached: he is only not seen. … To be wholly overlooked, and to know it, are intolerable.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Discourses on Davila, ch. 5 (1790)

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.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Journal, notes for an oration at Braintree (Spring 1772)

I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought 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 (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Abigail Adams (12 May 1780)

A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Abigail Adams (17 Jul 1775)

I read my eyes out and can’t read half enough…. The more one reads the more one sees we have to read.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Abigail Adams (28 Dec 1794)

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. 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 forevermore.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Abigail Adams (3 Jul 1776)

The Colonial Congress approved of the Independence Resolution on 2 July. The final agreement on the Declaration, and its signing, was on 4 July.

I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Abigail Adams (3 Jul. 1776)

Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Benjamin Rush (18 Apr 1808)

The Revolution was affected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people …. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Hezekiah Niles (13 Feb. 1818)

Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to John Quincy Adams (13 Nov 1816)

The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. Read over again all the accounts we have of Hindoos, Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Teutons, we shall find that priests had all the knowledge, and really governed mankind. Examine Mahometanism, trace Christianity from its first promulgation; knowledge has been almost exclusively confined to the clergy. And, even since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate A FREE INQUIRY? The blackest billingsgate, most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated and applauded, but touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will soon find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your legs and hands, and fly into your face and eyes.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to John Taylor (1814)

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 apprehension, it to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Jonathan Jackson (2 Oct 1789)

Virtue and Simplicity of Manners are indispensably necessary in a Republic among all orders and Degrees of Men. But there is so much Rascallity, so much Venality and Corruption, so much Avarice and Ambition such a Rage for Profit and Commerce among all Ranks and Degrees of Men even in America, that I sometimes doubt whether there is public Virtue enough to Support a Republic.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Mercy Warren (8 Jan 1776)
Full text.

I believe with Justin Martyr, that all good men are Christians, and I believe there have been, and are, good men in all nations, sincere and conscientious.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Simon Miller (8 Jul 1820)

The fundamental article of my political creed is that despotism, or unlimited sovereignty, or absolute power, is the same in a majority of a popular assembly, an aristocratic council, an oligarchical junto, and a single emperor.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Thomas Jefferson (13 Nov. 1815)

Books that cannot bear examination, certainly ought not to be established as divine inspiration by penal laws.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Thomas Jefferson (23 Jan 1825)

As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Thomas Jefferson (24 Aug 1815)

What do We Mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution; it was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected from 1760 to 1775, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Thomas Jefferson (24 Aug 1815)

May none but wise and honest
Men ever rule under this roof.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Letter to wife, the day after moving into the new White House (2-Nov-1800)

As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it, in reason, morality, and the natural fitness of things.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Proclamation adopted by the Council of Massachussetts Bay (1774)