Quote#Success & Failure
We have no government, armed with power, capable of contending with…
Quote byJohn Adams · 1735–1826
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter to the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, 11 October 1798, in Revolutionary Services and Civil Life of General William Hull (New York, 1848), pp 265-6. There are some differences in the version that appeared in The Works of John Adams (Boston,.
English (original)
we have no government, armed with power, capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
— John Adams
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