John Adams
(October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826)
2nd President of the United States
(1797–1801)

was an American politician who served as the first Vice President of the United States (1789–1797), and the second President of the United States (1797–1801). He was a major sponsor of the American Revolutionary War in Massachusetts, and a key diplomat in the 1770s. He was a driving force for independence in 1776—the "Colossus of Independence," declared Thomas Jefferson. As a statesman and author Adams helped define republicanism as the core American political value, meaning overthrow of monarchy and, especially, rule by the people, hatred of corruption, and devotion to civic duty. Regarded as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, he became the founder of an important family of politicians, diplomats and historians, and his reputation has been rising in recent years. Historian Robert Rutland concludes, "Madison was the great intellectual ... Jefferson the ... unquenchable idealist, and Franklin the most charming and versatile genius... but Adams is the most captivating founding father on most counts."

Let them revere nothing but religion, morality and liberty.

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

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure than they have it now, they may change their rulers and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.

The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity.

The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

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.

There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties... This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.

Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity!

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.

Now to what higher object, to what greater character, can any mortal aspire than to be possessed of all this knowledge, well digested and ready at command, to assist the feeble and friendless, to discountenance the haught and lawless, to procure redress of wrongs, the advancement of right, to assert and maintain liberty and virtue, to discourage and abolish tyranny and vice? Letter to Jonathan Sewall, October 1759

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right... and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers. A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765

Let us...cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write...Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing. A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765

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. Notes for an Oration at Braintree, Spring 1772