John Quotes

A major of colored troops is here with his party capturing negroes, with or without their consent....They are being conscripted.

To be creative and spontaneous, you have to live with imperfection.

As Eric Dolphy said 'Once you play the music, it's in the air. It's gone'. And that's true. But when you record it, it comes back to haunt you sometimes.

Schlepping all of the equipment is the part I hate more than anything.

Nobody's more mindful of the sacrifices of our troops than those of us that command them.

The power to prevent violence is a power that no police force seems to have anywhere in the United States.

But the truth of the matter is that there is there is an opportunity for them to participate in the economic and political future of the country and certainly in the security life of the country.

But as we move from this period of what many Iraqis regard as perceived occupation, we need to move towards one of partnership.

Oh, the transition concerns me because as we move towards an important political event, it's clear to me that the terrorists and insurgents will move as hard as they can to disrupt this process.

And over time, I think, as Iraqi security capacity builds, you'll see American and coalition presence there decline.

But my Arabic is pretty good. It's good enough to have conversations with people, to understand what they say, to understand what they're feeling.

I don't believe Iran is a suicide state.

Certainly our goal is to leave Iraq, but we can't leave Iraq with our forces until we know that the Iraqi security forces are capable and efficient enough to defend the sovereignty of the nation.

I believe we've... we've worked very hard with the Iraqis to build a better place ever since the fall of Saddam's government.

As far as Zarqawi is concerned, there is a network of extremists; it's not just Zarqawi.

It's clear to me now that we've got to reach out to the Arab Sunni community in particular in an effort to cause some moderate political activity to take place so they join the future of Iraq.

Thanks be to God, that he gave me Stubborness, when I know I am right.

Everything in life should be done with reflection.

Make Things rather than Persons the subjects of conversations.

The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.

The study and practice of law ... does not dissolve the obligations of morality or of religion.

It is folly to anticipate evils, and madness to create imaginary ones.

Have you ever found in history, one single example of a nation, thoroughly corrupted, that was afterwards restored to virtue? And without virtue there can be no political liberty.

Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws.

I shall have liberty to think for myself without molesting others or being molested myself.

Slavery is a foul contagion in the human character.

The real fabric of American society is not all those flags you see on people's cars...it's in the Bill of Rights and in our constitutional form of government.

Power in any Form . . . when directed only by human Wisdom and Benevolence is dangerous.

I do not like the reappearance of the Jesuits... Nevertheless, we are compelled by our system of religious toleration to offer them an asylum.

Where annual elections end, there slavery begins ... Humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.

In general, our generals were outgeneralled.

It's of more importance to community that innocence should be protected than it is that guilt should be punished

All great changes are irksome to the human mind, especially those which are attended with great dangers and uncertain effects.

What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love?

Education makes a greater difference between man and man than nature has made between man and brute.

There is not an enemy so stout, as to storm and take the fortress of the mind, Unless its infirmity turn traitor, and Fear unbar the gates.

The world grows more enlightened. Knowledge is more equally diffused.

National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman, and that there is an obligation to perform such a duty absolutely irrespective of party politics or factional differences.

Borrowed eloquence, if it contains as good stuff, is as good as own eloquence

Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination.

Public business must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise man decline, others will not; if honest man refuse it, others will not.

Virtue is not always amiable.

No good government but what is republican... the very definition of a republic is 'an empire of laws, and not of men.'

I am for making of terms annual, and for sending an entire new set every year.

They shall not be expected to acknowledge us until we have acknowledged ourselves.

We are in the the very midst of a revolution, the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.

I had heard my father say that he never knew a piece of land run away or break.

If the way to do good to my country were to render myself popular, I could easily do it. But extravagant popularity is not the road to public advantage.

Let every sluice of knowledge be opened and set a-flowing.

Modesty is a virtue that can never thrive in public.