John Quincy Adams Quotes

The imagination of a eunuch dwells more and longer upon the material of love than that of man or woman ... supplying, so far as he can, by speculation, the place of pleasures he can no longer enjoy. ~ John Quincy Adams

We understand now, we've been made to understand, and to embrace the understanding that who we are is who we were. ~ John Quincy Adams

Among the sentiments of most powerful operation upon the human heart, and most highly honorable to the human character, are those of veneration for our forefathers and of love for our posterity. ~ John Quincy Adams

Our religion was the religion of a Book. Man must be educated on Earth for Heaven. John Quincy Adams ~ Paul C. Nagel

I appear, my fellow-citizens, in your presence and in that of Heaven to bind myself by the solemnities of religious obligation to the faithful performance of the duties allotted to me in the station to which I have been called. ~ John Quincy Adams

The manners of women are the surest criterion by which to determine whether a republican government is practicable in a nation or not. ~ John Quincy Adams

For thirty-six of the forty years between 1800 and 1840, either Jefferson or a self-described adherent of his served as president of the United States: James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, and Martin Van Buren.32 (John Quincy Adams, a one-term president, was the single exception.) ~ Jon Meacham

It has been my custom for many years to read the Bible in its entirety once a year ~ John Quincy Adams

I told him it was law logic-an artificial system of reasoning, exclusively used in courts of justice, but good for nothing anywhere else. ~ John Quincy Adams

The declaration that our People are hostile to a government made by themselves, for themselves, and conducted by themselves, is an insult. ~ John Quincy Adams

Idleness is sweet, and its consequences are cruel. ~ John Quincy Adams

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 Quincy Adams

To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is ... the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself and enlarges the sphere of existence. ~ John Quincy Adams

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

The barbarian chieftain, who defended his country against the Roman invasion, driven to the remotest extremity of Britain, and stimulating his followers to battle, by all that has power of persuasion upon the human heart, concludes his exhortation by an appeal to these irresistible feelings - Think of your forefathers and of your posterity. ~ John Quincy Adams

Death fixes forever the relation existing between the departed spirit and the survivors upon earth. ~ John Quincy Adams

I have made it a practice for several years to read the Bible through in the course of every year. I usually devote to this reading the first hour after I rise every morning. As, including the Apocrypha, it contains about fourteen hundred chapters, and as I meet with occasional interruptions, when this reading is for single days, and sometimes for weeks, or even months, suspended, my rule is to read five chapters every morning, which leaves an allowance of about one-forth of the time for such interruptions. ~ John Quincy Adams

To believe that everyone is honest is folly, but to believe that no one is honest is worse. ~ John Quincy Adams

The gigantic intellect, the envious temper, the ravenous ambition and the rotten heart of Daniel Webster. ~ John Quincy Adams

To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so, is something worse. ~ John Quincy Adams

The four most miserable years of my life were my four years in the presidency. ~ John Quincy Adams

His face is livid, gaunt his whole body, his breath is green with gall; his tongue drips poison. ~ John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams resolved to the discipline of rejecting argument for argument's sake would he sees that a fellow cabinet member is trying to draw him in to debating proposals the president will already reject. ~ Paul C. Nagel

However tiresome to others, the most indefatigable orator is never tedious to himself. The sound of his own voice never loses its harmony to his own ear; and among the delusions, which self-love is ever assiduous in attempting to pass upon virtue, he fancies himself to be sounding the sweetest tones ~ John Quincy Adams

The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived. ~ John Quincy Adams

America ... goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. ~ John Quincy Adams

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. ~ John Quincy Adams

May our country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right. ~ John Quincy Adams

Individual liberty is individual power. ~ John Quincy Adams

When (an advocate) is not thoroughly acquainted with the real strength and weakness of his cause, he knows not where to choose the most impressive argument. When the mark is shrouded in obscurity, the only substitute for accuracy in the aim is in the multitude of the shafts. ~ John Quincy Adams

Religion, charity, pure benevolence, and morals, mingled up with superstitious rites and ferocious cruelty, form in their combination institutions the most powerful and the most pernicious that have ever afflicted mankind. ~ John Quincy Adams

A stout heart, a clear conscience, and never despair. ~ John Quincy Adams

The public history of all countries, and all ages, is but a sort of mask, richly colored. The interior working of the machinery must be foul. ~ John Quincy Adams

To preserve, to improve, and to perpetuate the sources and to direct in their most effective channels the streams which contribute to the public weal is the purpose for which Government was instituted. ~ John Quincy Adams

The great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing nation are so linked in union together that no permanent cause of prosperity to one of them can operate without extending its influence to the others. All these interests are alike under the protecting power of the legislative authority, and the duties of the representative bodies are to conciliate them in harmony together. ~ John Quincy Adams

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. ~ John Quincy Adams

Abraham Lincoln wasn't much of a dancer. "Miss Todd, I should like to dance with you in the worst way," he told his future wife. Miss Todd later said to a friend, "He certainly did."

"John Quincy Adams was a first-rate swimmer. Once when he was skinny-dipping in the Potomac River, a women reporter snatched his clothes and sat on them until he gave her an interview."

"(Andrew Johnson couldn't read until he was fourteen! He didn't learn to write until after he was married!) ~ Judith St. George

The law is an artificial human construct, quite arbitrary, and of absolutely no use anywhere else but in a court of law! ~ John Quincy Adams

The attainment of knowledge is the high and exclusive attribute of man, among the numberless myriads of animated beings, inhabitants of the terrestrial globe. On him alone is bestowed, by the bounty of the Creator of the universe, the power and the capacity of acquiring knowledge. Knowledge is the attribute of his nature which at once enables him to improve his condition upon earth, and to prepare him for the enjoyment of a happier existence hereafter. ~ John Quincy Adams

It is no slight testimonial, both to the merit and worth of Christianity, that in all ages since its promulgation the great mass of those who have risen to eminence by their profound wisdom and integrity have recognized and reverenced Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of the living God. ~ John Quincy Adams

There is such seduction in a library of good books that I cannot resist the temptation to luxuriate in reading. ~ John Quincy Adams

We are now told, indeed, by the learned doctors of the nullification school, that color operates as a forfeiture of the rights of human nature; that a dark skin turns a man into a chattel; that crispy hair transforms a human being into a four-footed beast. The master-priest informs you, that slavery is consecrated and sanctified by the Holy Scriptures and of the old and new Testament ... My countrymen! These are the tenants of the modern nullification school. Can you wonder that they shrink from the light of free discussion? That they skulk from the grasp of freedom and truth? ~ John Quincy Adams

From the experience of the past we derive instructive lessons for the future. ~ John Quincy Adams

Warren had a most unusual household. A recent widower with four children between the ages of two and eight, he was not only a leading patriot but also had one of the busiest medical practices in Boston. He had two apprentices living with him on Hanover Street, and he sometimes saw as many as twenty patients a day. His practice ran the gamut, from little boys with broken bones, like John Quincy Adams, to prostitutes on aptly named Damnation Alley, ~ Nathaniel Philbrick

The inconsistency of the institution of domestic slavery with the principles of the Declaration of Independence was seen and lamented ... no insincerity or hypocrisy can be fairly laid to their charge. Never from their lips was heard one syllable of attempt to justify the institution of slavery. They universally considered it as a reproach fastened upon them by the unnatural step-mother country and they saw that before the principles of the Declaration of Independence slavery, in common with every other mode of oppression, was destined sooner or later to be banished from the earth. ~ John Quincy Adams

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak, and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all His laws. ~ John Quincy Adams

My countenance in my old-age does injustice to my heart. John Quincy Adams ~ Paul C. Nagel

The freedom of the press should be inviolate. ~ John Quincy Adams

Roll, years of promise, rapidly roll round, till not a slave shall on this earth be found. ~ John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams, denying his sons permission to come home for college holidays for under-performance: "I would feel nothing but sorrow and shame at your presence. ~ Paul C. Nagel

I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year. ~ John Quincy Adams

The great object of the institution of civil government is the improvement of those who are parties to the social compact. ~ John Quincy Adams

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. ~ John Quincy Adams

The origin of the political relations between the United States and France is coeval with the first years of our independence. The memory of it is interwoven with that of our arduous struggle for national existence. Weakened as it has occasionally been since that time, it can by us never be forgotten, and we should hail with exultation the moment which should indicate a recollection equally friendly in spirit on the part of France. ~ John Quincy Adams

But we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States ... I think it is high time that we recognize the contribution of our forbearers who worked tirelessly - men like John Quincy Adams, who would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country. ~ Michele Bachmann

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. ~ John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams most certainly was a part of the Revolutionary War era. He was a young boy, but he was actively involved. ~ Michele Bachmann

Life is a problem; mortal man was made to solve the solemn problem right or wrong. ~ John Quincy Adams

I do conscientiously and sincerely believe that the Order of Freemasonry, if not the greatest, is one of the greatest moral and political evils under which the Union is now laboring ... a conspiracy of the few against the equal rights of the many ... Masonry ought forever to be abolished. It is wrong - essentially wrong - a seed of evil, which can never produce any good. ~ John Quincy Adams

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. ~ John Quincy Adams

Whoever tells the best story wins. ~ John Quincy Adams

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. ~ John Quincy Adams

Athenaeum, or Jonathan Edwards at thirteen entering Yale College, and while yet of a tender age shining in the horizon of American literature; while the same age finds H. W. Longfellow writing for the Portland Gazette. At fourteen John Quincy Adams was private secretary to Francis H. Dana, American Minister to Russia; at fifteen Benjamin Franklin was writing for the New England Courant, and at an early age became a noted journalist. Benjamin West at sixteen had painted "The Death of Socrates," at seventeen George Bancroft had won a degree in history, Washington Irving had gained ~ Charles Stewart Given

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

{Letter to his son and 6th US president, John Quincy Adams, November 13 1816} ~ John Adams

To live without having a Cicero and a Tacitus at hand seems to me as if it was aprivation of one of my limbs. ~ John Quincy Adams

At the age of eight, John Quincy Adams was made the man of his house while his father, John Adams, was off doing important John Adams things for America. This would be a lot of terrifying responsibility at any time in American history, but it just so happens that, when Adams was eight years old, the *Revolutionary freaking War* was happening right outside his house. He watched the Battle of Bunker Hill from his front porch, according to his diary, worried that he might be 'butchered in cold blood, or taken and carried ... as hostages by any foraging or marauding detachment of British soldiers.' I don't have the diary I kept at age eight, but I think the only things I worried about was whether or not they'd have for dogs in the school the next day and if I had the wherewithal and clarity of purpose to collect all of the Pokemon. John Q, on the other hand, guarded his house, mother, and siblings during wartime.

This isn't to imply that eight-year-old John Quincy Adams could have beaten eight-year-old you in a fight, but to imply that eight-year-old John Quincy Adams could beat you *as an adult*. ~ Daniel O'Brien

By infant baptism a person is committed, while unconscious, to a certain church; he is made a member of that church. Now, unless that church is infallible, it has no right to make a person a member without his consent; for, it may commit him to an alliance with error, and to the defenee of it. But all churches are fallible, they may err; a person who is made a member of such a church in infancy, may discover an error in that church when he arrives at maturity. Without his own consent, he has been committed to that error; he was not left free to choose, where it is evident, from the nature of things, a choice might have been exercised. Pedobaptism is therefore inconsistent with liberty. This will more fully appear from the ~ John Quincy Adams

I know the name of Turkey's leading avant-guard publication. I know that John Quincy Adams married for money. I know that Bud Abbott was a double-crosser, that absentee ballots are very popular in Ireland, and that dwarves have prominent buttocks. ~ A. J. Jacobs

The natural state of mankind ... and I know that this is a controversial idea ... is freedom ... And the proof is the lengths to which a man, woman, or child will go to regain it once lost. He will break loose his chains. He will decimate his enemies. He will try and try and try again, against all odds, against all prejudices. ~ John Quincy Adams

I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet. ~ John Quincy Adams

No book in the world deserves to be so unceasingly studied, and so profoundly meditated upon as the Bible. ~ John Quincy Adams

The young John Quincy Adams begins it lifelong habit of keeping a journal with reluctance that he might one day have to read it. He hopes, though, that the flaws in his earlier entries will be balanced by the progress he is able to see. ~ Paul C. Nagel

Not stones, nor wood, nor the art of artisans make a state; but where men are who know how to take care of themselves, these are cities and walls. ~ John Quincy Adams

To a man of liberal education, the study of history is not only useful, and important, but altogether indispensable, and with regard to the history contained in the Bible ... it is not so much praiseworthy to be acquainted with as it is shameful to be ignorant of it. ~ John Quincy Adams

The Constitution had provided that all the public functionaries of the Union ... should be under oath or affirmation for its support. The homage of religious faith was thus superadded to all the obligations of temporal law to give it strength. ~ John Quincy Adams

The conflict between the principle of liberty and the fact of slavery is coming gradually to an issue. Slavery has now the power, and falls into convulsions at the approach of freedom. That the fall of slavery is predetermined in the counsels of Omnipotence I cannot doubt; it is a part of the great moral improvement in the condition of man, attested by all the records of history. But the conflict will be terrible, and the progress of improvement perhaps retrograde before its final progress to consummation. ~ John Quincy Adams

The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality. ~ John Quincy Adams

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. ~ John Quincy Adams

I want the seals of power and place, the ensigns of command, charged by the people's unbought grace, to rule my native land. Nor crown, nor scepter would I ask but from my country's will, by day, by night, to ply the task her cup of bliss to fill. ~ John Quincy Adams

It is the doom of the Christian church to be always distracted with controversy. John Quincy Adams ~ Paul C. Nagel

Perhaps the twentieth-century Senator is not called upon to risk his entire future on one basic issue in the manner of Edmund Ross or Thomas Hart Benton. Perhaps our modern acts of political courage do not arouse the public in the manner that crushed the career of Sam Houston and John Quincy Adams. Still, when we realize that a newspaper that chooses to denounce a Senator today can reach many thousand times as many voters as could be reached by all of Daniel Webster's famous and articulate detractors put together, these stories of twentieth-century political courage have a drama, an excitement - and an inspiration - all their own. ~ John F. Kennedy

In the American hemisphere the cause of freedom and independence has continued to prevail, and if signalized by none of those splendid triumphs which had crowned with glory some of the preceding years it has only been from the banishment of all external force against which the struggle had been maintained. The shout of victory has been superseded by the expulsion of the enemy over whom it could have been achieved. ~ John Quincy Adams

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. ~ John Quincy Adams

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. ~ John Quincy Adams

I would much rather be found guilty of making a serious mistake in judgment, than to be accused of being even a little bit insincere. ~ John Quincy Adams

About one-half of the members of Congress are seekers for office at the nomination of the President. Of the remainder, at least one-half have some appointment or favor to ask for their relatives. ~ John Quincy Adams

The hope of a Christian is inseparable from his faith. Whoever believes in the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures must hope that the religion of Jesus shall prevail throughout the earth. Never since the foundation of the world have the prospects of mankind been more encouraging to that hope than they appear to be at the present time. And may the associated distribution of the Bible proceed and prosper till the Lord shall have made 'bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God' (Isaiah 52:10). ~ John Quincy Adams

There still remains one effort of magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and passion, to be made by the individuals throughout the nation who have heretofore followed the standards of political party. It is that of discarding every remnant of rancor against each other, of embracing as countrymen and friends, and of yielding to talents and virtue alone that confidence which in times of contention for principle was bestowed only upon those who bore the badge of party communion. ~ John Quincy Adams

My stern chase after time is, to borrow a simile from Tom Paine, like the race of a man with a wooden leg after a horse. ~ John Quincy Adams

The magistrate is the servant not of his own desires, not even of the people, but of his God ~ John Quincy Adams

I want a warm and faithful friend, To cheer the adverse hour; Who ne'er to flatter will descend, Nor bend the knee to power,- A friend to chide me when I'm wrong, My inmost soul to see; And that my friendship prove as strong For him as his for me. ~ John Quincy Adams

There is nothing so deep and nothing so shallow which political enmity will not turn to account. ~ John Quincy Adams

All that I am my mother made me. - John Quincy Adams. Children and mothers never truly part ... ~ Charlotte Gray

I have myself, for many years, made it a practice to read through the Bible once ever year ... My custom is, to read four to five chapters every morning immediately after rising from my bed. I employs about an hour of my time ... ~ John Quincy Adams

I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong. ~ John Quincy Adams

The Constitution is quite clear that no person "except a natural born citizen" is eligible to be president of the United States, but there is no such restriction placed on a president's wife. Louisa Adams is the only one of a long line of First Ladies who were born abroad, and although her father was an American and citizenship her birthright, it became an issue that was used against her husband, John Quincy Adams, when he ran for the presidency. It was a whispering campaign, to be sure, because most people knew very well that Louisa was as much a citizen as they were. A large number of people didn't understand that children born to Americans abroad inherited their parents' rights, and in Louisa's case, even some of those who did know this weren't so sure that the rule applied to her because her mother was a British subject. ~ Bill Harris

All the public business in Congress now connects itself with intrigues, and there is great danger that the whole government will degenerate into a struggle of cabals. ~ John Quincy Adams

This is the last of earth! I am content. ~ John Quincy Adams

Try and fail,but don't fail to try. ~ John Quincy Adams

The mere title of lawyer is sufficient to deprive a man of the public confidence ... The most innocent and irreproachable life cannot guard a lawyer against the hatred of his fellow citizens. ~ John Quincy Adams