"Remember, democracy never lasts long.
It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.
There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
-- John Adams
(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/John.Adams.Quote.7222


"No good government but what is republican...
the very definition of a republic is
'an empire of laws, and not of men.'"
-- John Adams
(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
Source: "Thoughts on Government" January, 1776
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/John.Adams.Quote.3B82


"All good government is and must be republican. But at the same time, 
you can or will agree with me, that there is not in lexicography a more 
fraudulent word... Are we not, my friend, in danger of rendering the word 
republican unpopular in this country by an indiscreet, indeterminate, and 
equivocal use of it? [...] Whenever I use the word republic with approbation, 
I mean a government in which the people have collectively, or by representation, 
an essential share in the sovereignty... the republican forms in Poland and 
Venice are much worse, and those of Holland and Bern very little better, than 
the monarchical form in France before the late revolution." -- John Adams
(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
Source: Adams to Samuel Adams, 18 Oct, 1789 in Works, VI:415,420-421
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/John.Adams.Quote.7B54


"[I] never understood [what a republican government was and]
I believe no other man ever did or ever will."
-- John Adams
(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
Source: Adams to Mercy Warren, July 20, 1807, in MHS Collections 5th ser. IV, 1878
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/John.Adams.Quote.7BC1

"The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other
sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation 
ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts.
I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study
mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and
philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture,
navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children
a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary,
tapestry and porcelain." -- John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd 
US President
Source: in a letter to Abigail Adams, 1780
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/John.Adams.Quote.0CAD

"The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution
was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious
sentiments of their duties and obligations ...
This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and
affections of the people, was the real American Revolution."
-- John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
February 13, 1818
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/John.Adams.Quote.DC64