I thought this blog would be appropriate seeing we have our elected officials in Washington stating what the Founding Fathers wanted to do and say like they somehow spoke to our Founding Fathers before making their statements. John Adams was a major proponent of the cause of independence that we are so aptly living in today.

John Adams was part of a committee who drew up the Declaration of Independence and is the reason his quotes are so noteworthy and filled with wisdom.

  • “Public business, my son, must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise men decline it, others will not, if honest men refuse it, others will not.”
  • “Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
  • “I fear that in every elected office, members will obtain an influence by noise not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not learning. By contracted hearts, not large souls… There must be decency and respect.”
  • “Defeat appears to me preferable to total inaction.”
  • “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
  • “You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”
  • “Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have the right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.”

Please read the full article, The Best John Adams Quotes, and see if you have other bits of quoted wisdom from John Adams other than the ones I feel hit home today!