Explore Quotes by John Quincy Adams

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. These qualities have ever been displayed in their mightiest perfection, as attendants in the retinue of strong passions.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Occasional war is one of the rigorous instruments in the hands of Providence to give tone to the character of nations.

Where annual elections end where slavery begins.

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

All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.

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.

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

The will of the people is the source and the happiness of the people the end of all legitimate government upon earth.

[America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

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.

The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code; it contained many statutes . . . of universal application-laws essential to the existence of men in society, and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws.

In what light soever we regard the Bible, whether with reference to revelation, to history, or to morality, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.

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

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