The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, Volume 6Little, Brown, 1851 - Presidents |
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Page 10
... virtue . As to usurping others ' rights , they are all three equally guilty when unlimited in power . No wise man will trust either with an opportunity ; and every judicious legislator will set all three to watch and control each other ...
... virtue . As to usurping others ' rights , they are all three equally guilty when unlimited in power . No wise man will trust either with an opportunity ; and every judicious legislator will set all three to watch and control each other ...
Page 15
... virtues to be diminished ; but such examples are as rare among statesmen , as Homers and Miltons are among poets . A free people of common sense will not depend upon finding a sufficient number of such characters at any one time , still ...
... virtues to be diminished ; but such examples are as rare among statesmen , as Homers and Miltons are among poets . A free people of common sense will not depend upon finding a sufficient number of such characters at any one time , still ...
Page 18
... virtues of its ancient owner , and desiring warmly to imitate them . But , though declamatory writers might call the conduct of Curius " exactissima Romanæ frugalitatis norma , " it was not the general character , even of the senators ...
... virtues of its ancient owner , and desiring warmly to imitate them . But , though declamatory writers might call the conduct of Curius " exactissima Romanæ frugalitatis norma , " it was not the general character , even of the senators ...
Page 19
... virtues and magnanimous actions of Curius , make nothing in favor of Nedham . He was a patrician , a senator , and a consul ; he had been taught by aristocratical ancestors , formed in an aristocratical school , and was full of ...
... virtues and magnanimous actions of Curius , make nothing in favor of Nedham . He was a patrician , a senator , and a consul ; he had been taught by aristocratical ancestors , formed in an aristocratical school , and was full of ...
Page 25
... virtues which grew up only in a few aristocratical families , were cultivated by the emulation between the two orders in the state , and by their struggles to check and balance each other , to prove the excel- lence of a state where ...
... virtues which grew up only in a few aristocratical families , were cultivated by the emulation between the two orders in the state , and by their struggles to check and balance each other , to prove the excel- lence of a state where ...
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Common terms and phrases
Adams Admiral ambition appear appointed aristocracy army assembly authority balance Béarn blood Bourbon Cæsar Cardinal Cardinal of Lorraine Catholic character Cincinnatus civil command common commonwealth Constable constitution consuls corruption court cracy danger decemvirs democratical despotism Duke of Anjou Duke of Guise elections enemies England envy equal example executive power faction favor form of government fortune France friends governors grandees hands hereditary honor Huguenots human influence interest jealousy judges King of Navarre kingdom laws legislative legislature liberty Mælius magistrates majority mankind Manlius Marchamont Nedham means ment merit mixed government moral nation nature never nobility nobles party passions patricians people's persons plebeians popular present preserve president Prince of Condé principles Queen mother reason religion representatives republic rich Roman Rome senate simple democracy simple monarchy sovereign sovereignty spirit standing powers States-General supreme thing tion tribunes truth tyranny United virtue vote whole
Popular passages
Page 266 - Take but degree away, untune that string, And, hark, what discord follows ; each thing meets In mere oppugnancy : the bounded waters Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores And make a sop of all this solid globe : Strength should be lord of imbecility, And the rude son should strike his father dead : Force should be right ; or rather, right and wrong, Between whose endless jar justice resides, Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Page 264 - Order is Heaven's first law; and this confest, Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence That such are happier, shocks all common sense.
Page 199 - If you thus behave yourselves, and so become a terror to evil doers and a praise to them that do well...
Page 274 - First follow Nature, and your judgment frame By her just standard, which is still the same...
Page 266 - Force should be right ; or rather, right and wrong (Between whose endless jar justice resides) Should lose their names, and so should justice too. Then everything includes itself in power, Power into will, will into appetite ; And appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded with will and power, Must make perforce an universal prey, And last eat up himself.
Page 517 - In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, Aspiring to be angels, men rebel ; And who but wishes to invert the laws Of Order, sins against th
Page 168 - The instruction of the people in every kind of knowledge that can be of use to them in the practice of their moral duties as men, citizens, and Christians, and of their political and civil duties as members of society and freemen, ought to be the care of the public, and of all who have any share in the conduct of its affairs, in a manner that never yet has been practiced in any age or nation.
Page 265 - In monumental mockery. Take the instant way; For honour travels in a strait so narrow Where one but goes abreast : keep, then, the path...
Page 233 - The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art, Reigns, more or less, and glows, in every heart : The proud, to gain it, toils on toils endure ; The modest shun it, but to make it sure.
Page 266 - O, when degree is shak'd, Which is the ladder to all high designs, The enterprise is sick. How could communities, Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities, Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, The primogenitive and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, But by degree, stand in authentic place ? Take but degree away, untune that string, And, hark, what discord follows...