Tag Archives: John Adams

First Principles: It Should Be Your Care…To Elevate the Minds of Our Children and Exult Their Courage…If We Suffer Their Minds To Grovel and Creep In Infancy, They Will Grovel All Their Lives

“It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and … Continue reading

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First Principles: Liberty Cannot Be Preserved Without A General Knowledge Among the People, Who Have A Right…To Knowledge

“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to … Continue reading

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First Principles: The Foundation of National Morality Must Be Laid In Private Families

“The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. … In vain are Schools, Academies, and Universities instituted, if loose principles and licentious habits are impressed upon children in their earliest years.” – John Adams (1778)

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First Principles: 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

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” – John Adams (1770)

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First Principles: Let Justice Be Done Though The Heavens Should Fall

“Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.“ – John Adams (1777)

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First Principles: That Form of Government Which Is Best Contrived To Secure An Impartial and Exact Execution of the Laws, Is the Best of Republics

“That form of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the laws, is the best of republics.” – John Adams (1776)

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First Principles: A Constitution of Government Once Changed From Freedom, Can Never Be Restored. Liberty, Once Lost, Is Lost Forever

“A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.” –  John Adams

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First Principles: We Should Be Unfaithful To Ourselves If We Should Ever Lose Sight of the Danger To Our Liberties If Anything Partial or Extraneous Should Infect the Purity…of Our Free…Elections

“We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.” – John Adams (1797)

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First Principles: The People Alone Have An Incontestable, Unalienable, and Indefeasible Right To Institute Government and To Reform, Alter, Or Totally Change the Same

“The People alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government and to reform, alter, or totally change the same when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.” – John Adams

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First Principles: The Foundation of National Morality Must Be Laid In Private Families

“The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. … In vain are schools, academies, and universities instituted, if loose principles and licentious habits are impressed upon children in their earliest years.” – John Adams (1778)

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