John Adams said this quote

In esse I am nothing in posse I am everything.

~ John Adams

If I had refused to institute a negotiation or had not persevered in it I would have been degraded in my own estimation as a man of honor.

~ John Adams

Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.

~ John Adams

When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.

~ John Adams