If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?
~ John Adams - [Service]

The happiness of society is the end of government.
~ John Adams - [Society]

Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity.
~ John Adams - [Past]

In politics the middle way is none at all.
~ John Adams - [Politicians and Politics]

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.
~ John Adams - [Power]

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
~ John Adams - [Revolutions and Revolutionaries]

The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.
~ John Adams - [Revolutions and Revolutionaries]

Liberty can not be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.
~ John Adams - [Liberty]

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.
~ John Adams - [Mind]

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

Thomas Jefferson -- still survā
~ John Adams - [Famous Last Words]

Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.
~ John Adams - [Freedom]

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
~ John Adams - [Freedom]

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 years after you and I shall write and speak no more.
~ John Adams - [Freedom]

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 Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.''
~ John Adams - [Freedom]

Genius is sorrow's child.
~ John Adams - [Genius]

Fear is the foundation of most government.
~ John Adams - [Government]

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
~ John Adams - [Democracy]

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 - [Desire]

There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.
~ John Adams - [Education]