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John Adams D.D. (1662–1720) was an English churchman, and provost of King's College, Cambridge.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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“No man is entirely free from weakness and imperfection in this life. Men of the most exalted genius and active minds are generally most perfect slaves to the love of fame. They sometimes descend to as mean tricks and artifices in pursuit of honor or reputation as the miser descends to in pursuit of gold.”
— Diary entry (19 February 1756)
“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. — if you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the pains to preserve it. —”
— Letter to Abigail Adams (27 April 1777), published as Letter CXI in Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife (1841) edited by Charles Francis Adams, p. 218
“The proposition, that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties, is not true; they are the worst conceivable; they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.”
— This is attributed to Adams in The Life of Thomas Jefferson (1858) by Henry Stephens Randall, p. 587
“I had heard my father say that he never knew a piece of land run away or break.”
— Autobiography (1802–1807)
“All projects of government, formed upon a supposition of continual vigilance, sagacity, and virtue, firmness of the people, when possessed of the exercise of supreme power, are cheats and delusions.”
— Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, vol. III, p. 412; also quoted in Works of John Adams, vol. VI, p. 166.
“Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.”
— As quoted by Josiah Quincy III, in Looking Toward Sunset: From Sources Old and New, Original and Selected (1865) by Lydia Maria Francis Child, p. 431

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Notable quotes

“No man is entirely free from weakness and imperfection in this life. Men of the most exalted genius and active minds are generally most perfect slaves to the love of fame. They sometimes descend to as mean tricks and artifices in pursuit of honor or reputation as the miser descends to in pursuit of gold.”
— Diary entry (19 February 1756)
“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. — if you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the pains to preserve it. —”
— Letter to Abigail Adams (27 April 1777), published as Letter CXI in Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife (1841) edited by Charles Francis Adams, p. 218
“The proposition, that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties, is not true; they are the worst conceivable; they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.”
— This is attributed to Adams in The Life of Thomas Jefferson (1858) by Henry Stephens Randall, p. 587
“I had heard my father say that he never knew a piece of land run away or break.”
— Autobiography (1802–1807)
“All projects of government, formed upon a supposition of continual vigilance, sagacity, and virtue, firmness of the people, when possessed of the exercise of supreme power, are cheats and delusions.”
— Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, vol. III, p. 412; also quoted in Works of John Adams, vol. VI, p. 166.
“Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.”
— As quoted by Josiah Quincy III, in Looking Toward Sunset: From Sources Old and New, Original and Selected (1865) by Lydia Maria Francis Child, p. 431

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

John Adams

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John Adams

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John Adams across IJR

Overview

Notable quotes

Notable quotes

Overview

John Adams across IJR