John Adams Quotes
American - President October 30, 1735 - July 4, 1826


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

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

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
John Adams

Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.
John Adams

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.
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

The happiness of society is the end of government.
John Adams

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

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

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
John Adams

Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.
John Adams

All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.
John Adams

I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.
John Adams

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

Fear is the foundation of most governments.
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

A government of laws, and not of men.
John Adams

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

Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.
John Adams

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

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

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.
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

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

Genius is sorrow's child.
John Adams

I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.
John Adams

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

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

The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.
John Adams

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

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

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

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.
John Adams

The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.
John Adams

The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals.
John Adams

Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.
John Adams

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

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

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


Adelaide Anne Procter Quotes
English - Poet October 30, 1825 - February 2, 1864

Joy is like restless day; but peace divine like quiet night; Lead me, O Lord, till perfect Day shall shine through Peace to Light.
Adelaide Anne Procter

Seated one day at the organ, I was weary and ill at ease, and my fingers wandered idly over the noisy keys. It seemed the harmonious echo from our discordant life.
Adelaide Anne Procter

The men are much alarmed by certain speculations about women; and well they may be, for when the horse and ass begin to think and argue, adieu to riding and driving.
Adelaide Anne Procter

No star is ever lost we once have seen, we always may be what we might have been.
Adelaide Anne Procter

I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be a pleasant road.
Adelaide Anne Procter

Dreams grow holy put in action.
Adelaide Anne Procter

We always may be what we might have been.
Adelaide Anne Procter


Ruth Gordon Quotes
American - Actress October 30, 1896 - August 28, 1985


Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, face the facts.
Ruth Gordon

The very best impromptu speeches are the ones written well in advance.
Ruth Gordon

Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use.
Ruth Gordon

To be somebody you must last.
Ruth Gordon

So easy to fall into a rut, isn't it? Why should ruts be so comfortable and so unpopular?
Ruth Gordon

Pan me, don't give me the part, publish everybody's book but this one and I will still make it!
Ruth Gordon

If I don't make it today, I'll come in tomorrow.
Ruth Gordon

Discussing how old you are is the temple of boredom.
Ruth Gordon

Nothing dates one so dreadfully as to think someplace is uptown. At our age one must be watchful of these conversational gray hairs.
Ruth Gordon


Otis Williams Quotes
American - Musician Born: October 30, 1939

I've learned over the years that people are human and have mood swings, regardless of how talented they are. Today, I'm looking at life from a realistic point of view instead of the way I would want things to be.
Otis Williams

Bill Mitchell said he really liked it. But when he asked the other four their opinions, we all took one look at ourselves in our raggedy long winter coats and cracked up. We knew we weren't likely to tempt anyone or anything, but what the hell, it was as good a name as any.
Otis Williams

The Temptations still stand today, not in spite of those who left us, but because of them.
Otis Williams

I'm the glue that holds everything together.
Otis Williams

We've been performing with symphonies all of our career and it sounds so wonderful when they play 'My Girl' with the large string section, I want to turn around and look.
Otis Williams