John 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.”

“Genius is sorrow’s child.”

“Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens understanding and softens the heart.”

“I agree with you that in politics the middle way is none at all.”

“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”

“In every society where property exists there will ever be a struggle between rich and poor.  Mixed in one assembly, equal laws can never be expected; they will either be made by the members to plunder the few who are rich, or by the influential to fleece the many who are poor.”

“Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”

“My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.”

“No man who ever held the office of President would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.” 

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

“The people have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefensible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge--I mean the character and conduct of their rulers.”

“The Revolution was effected before the War commenced.  The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations.”

“When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh.  No such thing ever existed.  No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist.  But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.”

“You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.”