John Quincy Adams
Democracy, pure democracy, has at least its foundation in a generous theory of human rights. It is founded on the natural equality of mankind. It is the cornerstone of the Christian religion. It is the first element of all lawful government upon earth.Collection: Religion
The Declaration of Independence pronounced the irrevocable decree of political separation, between the United States and their people on the one part, and the British king, government, and nation on the other.Collection: Independence
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.Collection: Patience
Is not the brand of 'double-dealer' stamped on the forehead of every democratic slaveholder? Are not fraud and hypocrisy the religion of the man who calls himself a democrat, and hold his fellow-man in bondage?Collection: Religion
Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.Collection: Alone
The more you meditate on the laws of Moses, the more striking and brighter does their wisdom appear.Collection: Wisdom
This idea of the transcendent power of the Supreme Being is essentially connected with that by which the whole duty of man is summed up: obedience to His will.Collection: Power
The great object of the institution of civil government is the improvement of those who are parties to the social compact.Collection: Government
All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.Collection: Men
The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.Collection: Government
America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
It is among the evils of slavery that it taints the very sources of moral principle. It establishes false estimates of virtue and vice: for what can be more false and heartless than this doctrine which makes the first and holiest rights of humanity to depend upon the color of the skin?
Gratitude, warm, sincere, intense, when it takes possession of the bosom, fills the soul to overflowing and scarce leaves room for any other sentiment or thought.
From the day of the Declaration, the people of the North American union, and of its constituent states, were associated bodies of civilized men and Christians, in a state of nature, but not of anarchy.
Where annual elections end where slavery begins.
It is of no use to discover our own faults and infirmities unless the discovery prompts up to amendment.
To read the Bible is of itself a laudable occupation and can scarcely fail of being a useful employment of time; but the habit of reflecting upon what you have read is equally essential as than of reading itself, to give it all the efficacy of which it is susceptible.
Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.
In order to preserve the dominion of our own passions, it behooves us to be constantly and strictly on our guard against the influence and infection of the passions of others.
I have no predilection for unpopularity as such, but I hold it much preferable to the popularity of a day, which perishes with the transient topic upon which it is grounded.
Heaven has given to every human being the power of controlling his passions, and if he neglects or loses it, the fault is his own, and he must be answerable for it.
According to the Stoics, all vice was resolvable into folly: according to the Christian principle, it is all the effect of weakness.
It was the special purpose of Christ's appearance upon earth to bring immortality to light.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.Collection: Inspirational
Try and fail,but don't fail to try.Collection: Inspirational
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people... it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.Collection: Religious
To believe that everyone is honest is folly, but to believe that no one is honest is worse.Collection: Believe
Duty is ours, results are God's.Collection: Reality
I have to study politics and war so that my sons can study mathematics, commerce and agriculture, so their sons can study poetry, painting and music.Collection: War
America is a friend of freedom everywhere, but a custodian only of our own.Collection: America
Idleness is sweet, and its consequences are cruel.Collection: Sweet
Those who take oaths to politically powerful secret societies cannot be depended on for loyalty to a democratic republic.Collection: Loyalty
I speak as a man of the world to men of the world; and I say to you, Search the Scriptures! The Bible is the book of all others, to be read at all ages, and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once or twice or thrice through, and then laid aside, but to be read in small portions of one or two chapters every day, and never to be intermitted, unless by some overruling necessity.Collection: Life
From the experience of the past we derive instructive lessons for the future.Collection: Past
There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.Collection: Wise
America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She well knows that by enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standards of freedom.Collection: War
Find a mission that you can give yourself over to and then spend your days moving that mission forward. Man is made so that when anything fires his soul the impossibilities vanish. The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.Collection: Moving
...he [Muhammad] declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind...The precept of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God.Collection: War
Whenever vanity and gaiety, a love of pomp and dress, furniture, equipage, buildings, great company, expensive diversions, and elegant entertainments get the better of the principles and judgments of men and women, there is no knowing where they will stop, nor into what evils, natural, moral, or political, they will lead us.Collection: Men
Individual liberty is individual power.Collection: Liberty
Slavery is the great and foul stain upon the North American Union.Collection: Presidential
No book in the world deserves to be so unceasingly studied, and so profoundly meditated upon as the Bible.Collection: Book
Every temptation is an opportunity of our getting nearer to God.Collection: Opportunity
The four most miserable years of my life were my four years in the presidency.Collection: Years
Whoever tells the best story wins.Collection: Funny
I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong.Collection: Country
In charity to all mankind, bearing no malice or ill will to any human being, and even compassionating those who hold in bondage their fellow men, not knowing what they do.Collection: Men
Man wants but little here below Nor wants that little long, 'Tis not with me exactly so; But 'tis so in the song. My wants are many, and, if told, Would muster many a score; And were each wish a mint of gold, I still should long for more.Collection: Song
It has been my custom for many years to read the Bible in its entirety once a yearCollection: Years