John Adams

"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."
--John Adams

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
--John Adams

"In politics the middle way is none at all."
--John Adams

"Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases."
--John Adams

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy."
--John Adams

"Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write."
--John Adams

"Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people."
--John Adams

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
--John Adams

"Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws."
--John Adams

"Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty."
--John Adams

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."
--John Adams