202 Quotes by John Quincy Adams

America is a friend of freedom everywhere, but a custodian only of our own.

There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.

So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society. I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year.

Civil liberty can be established on no foundation of human reason which will not at the same time demonstrate the right of religious freedom.

Where annual elections end where slavery begins.

May our country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.

The Law given from Sinai [The Ten Commandments] was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code.

A man's diary is a record in youth of his sentiments, in middle age of his actions, in old age of his reflections.

Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day (the 4th of July)? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior?.