The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country. – John Adams
Vanity, I am sensible, is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly; and I am in continual danger, when in company, of being led an ignis fatuus chase by it. – John Adams
Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society. – John Adams
I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth. – John Adams