Acknowledgment of God
"As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensible duty which the people owe to Him. ... I have therefore thought fit to recommend ... a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer that the citizens of these States ... offer their devout addresses to the Father of Mercies." - John Adams, "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States", Charles Francis Adams, editor, (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1854), Vol. IX, p. 169, proclamation while President of the United States, for a National Thanksgiving on March 23, 1798
Age of Reason - by Thomas Paine
"The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity, let the Blackguard Paine say what he will." - John Adams, "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States", Vol. III, p. 421, Diary entry for July 26, 1796, (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1856)
Democracy
"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, "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States", Vol. VI, p. 484, August 29, 1763, (Boston: Charles C. Little, James Brown, 1851)
"Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and everyone of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit, and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few." - John Adams, "The Papers of John Adams", Tobert J. Taylor, editor (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1977), Vol. I, p. 83, from "An Essay on Man's Lust for Power, with the Author's Comment in 1807", written on August 29, 1763, but first published by John Adams in 1807.
Government
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. ... Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams, "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States", Vol. IX, p 229, October 11, 1798, Charles Francis Adams, editor, (Boston: Little, Brown, 1854)
"We electors have an important constitutional power placed in our hands; we have a check upon two branches of the legislature. ... It becomes necessary to every[one] then, to be in some degree a statesman: and to examine and judge for himself ... the ... political principles and measures. Let us examine, then, with a sober ... Christian spirit." - John Adams, "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States", Vol. III, p. 437, August 29, 1763, (Boston: Charles C. Little, James Brown, 1851)
Happiness
"Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. ... What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be. I have examined all ... and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more of my little philosophy than all the libraries I have seen." John Adams, "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States", Vol. II, pp. 6-7, diary entry for February 22, 1756, Vol. X, p. 85, to Thomas Jefferson on December 25, 1813, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1854)
Liberty
"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were ... the general principles of Christianity. ... I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God" John Adams, "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson", Vol. XIII, p. 292-294, In a letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813, (Washington D.C., The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904)
Patriotism
"The idea of infidelity cannot be treated with too much resentment or too much horror. The man who can think of it with patience is a traitor in his heart and ought to be execrated as one who adds the deepest hypocrisy to the blackest treason." - John Adams, "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States", Vol. VI, p. 348, to James Warren on August 4,1778, (Boston: Charles C. Little, James Brown, 1851)
Republicanism
"It is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. Religion and virtue are the only foundations ... of republicanism and all free governments." - John Adams, "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States", Vol. IX, p. 401, to Zabdiel Adams on June 21, 1776, Vol. IX p. 636, to Benjamin Rush on August 28, 1811, Charles Francis Adams, editor, (Boston: Charles C. Little, James Brown, 1854)
Security
"The safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend upon the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness cannot exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed." - John Adams, ""The Papers of John Adams", Tobert J. Taylor, editor (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1977), Vol. IX, p. 169, March 23, 1798
"No truth is more clearly taught in the Volume of Inspiration, nor any more fully demonstrated by the experience of all ages, than that a deep sense and a due acknowledgment of the governing providence of a Supreme Being and the accountableness of men to Him as the searcher of hearts and righteous distributor of rewards and punishments are conducive equally to the happiness and rectitude of individuals and to the well being of communities." - John Adams, "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States", Vol. IX, p. 172, March 6, 1799, (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1854)
Ten Commandments
"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If 'Thou shalt not Covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal', were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free." - John Adams, "A Defense of the Constitution of Government of the United States of America", Vol. III, p. 217, from 'The Right Constitution of a Commonwealth Examined', Letter VI, (Philadelphia: William Young, 1797)
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