A biography for John Quincy Adamshasn’t been written yet.
“America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.”
“The great object of the institution of civil government is the improvement of those who are parties to the social compact.”
“I have no predilection for unpopularity as such, but I hold it much preferable to the popularity of a day, which perishes with the transient topic upon which it is grounded.”
“The more you meditate on the laws of Moses, the more striking and brighter does their wisdom appear.”
“All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.”
“According to the Stoics, all vice was resolvable into folly: according to the Christian principle, it is all the effect of weakness.”
“To read the Bible is of itself a laudable occupation and can scarcely fail of being a useful employment of time; but the habit of reflecting upon what you have read is equally essential as than of reading itself, to give it all the efficacy of which it is susceptible.”
“Where annual elections end where slavery begins.”
“Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.”
“It is of no use to discover our own faults and infirmities unless the discovery prompts up to amendment.”
“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”
“No one knows, and few conceive, the agony of mind that I have suffered from the time that I was made by circumstances, and not by my volition, a candidate for the Presidency till I was dismissed from that station by the failure of my election.”
“In order to preserve the dominion of our own passions, it behooves us to be constantly and strictly on our guard against the influence and infection of the passions of others.”