Quotes from John Adams
This is my religion ... joy and exaltation in my own existence ... so go ahead and snarl ... bite ... howl, you Calvinistic divines and all you who say I am no Christian. I say you are not Christian.
- John Adams
Human passions unbridled by morality and religion...would break the stronges cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.
- John Adams
Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell.
- John Adams
The appearance of religion only on Sunday proves that it is only an appearance.
- John Adams
The study and practice of law ... does not dissolve the obligations of morality or of religion.
- John Adams
The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals.
- John Adams
Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
- John Adams
The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.
- John Adams
Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government and in all the combinations of human society.
- John Adams
The form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best.
- John Adams
If "Thou shalt not covet," and "Thou shalt not steal," were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free.
- 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