I, poor creature, worn out with scribbling for my bread and my liberty, low in spirits and weak in health, must leave others to wear the laurels which I have sown, others to eat the bread which I have earned. A common case. John Adams Read Quote
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. John Adams Read Quote
Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power. John Adams Read Quote
My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived. John Adams Read Quote
I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth. John Adams Read Quote
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 Adams Read Quote
As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my children. John Adams Read Quote
While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill – little better understood, little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago. John Adams Read Quote