“Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.”

— John Adams, Novanglus Essays, No. 3 (1774–1775)

About John Adams

1735 – 1826

Second President of the United States and a leading figure of the American Revolution.

“There is, in the human breast, a social affection, which extends to our whole species.”

“Education makes a greater difference between man and man, than nature has made between man and brute.”

“A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.”

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”