John Adams Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.”

“The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.”

“Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.”

“Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.”

“A government of laws, and not of men.”

“The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it.”

“Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.”

“Fear is the foundation of most governments.”

“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.”

“Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.”