Skip to content
Shawords

Quote#Politics & Power

We may appeal to every page of history we have hitherto turned over,…

Quote byJohn Adams · 1735–1826

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, vol. III, p. 218; also quoted in Works of John Adams, vol. VI, p. 10..

English (original)

We may appeal to every page of history we have hitherto turned over, for proofs irrefragable, that the people, when they have been unchecked, have been as unjust, tyrannical, brutal, barbarous and cruel as any king or senate possessed of uncontrollable power.

— John Adams

More from John Adams