"Admire and adore the Author of the telescopic universe, love and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen ill, and increase good, but never assume to comprehend."
- John Adams
"You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket."
"Let us tenderly and kindly cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write ."
"...Turn our thoughts, in the next place, to the characters of learned men. The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. Read over again all the accounts we have of Hindoos..."
"I read my eyes out and can't read half enough...the more one reads the more one sees we have to read."
"I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading."
"Daughter! Get you an honest Man for a Husband, and keep him honest. No matter whether he is rich, provided he be independent. Regard the Honour and moral Character of the Man more than all other Circu..."
"There are persons whom in my heart I despise, others I abhor. Yet I am not obliged to inform the one of my contempt, nor the other of my detestation. This kind of dissimulation...is a necessary branch..."
"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 ..."
"...The Presidential election has given me less anxiety than I myself could have imagined. The next administration will be a troublesome one, to whomsoever it falls, and our John has been too much worn..."