Quotes by James Truslow Adams

“We cannot advance without new experiments in living, but no wise man tries every day what he has proved wrong the day before.”

“The freedom now desired by many is not freedom to do and dare but freedom from care and worry”

“It may be that without a vision men shall die. It is no less true that, without hard practical sense, they shall also die. Without Jefferson the new nation might have lost its soul. Without Hamilton it would assuredly have been killed in body.”

“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, This is the real me, and when you have found that attitude, follow it.”

“There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behaves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.”

“Age acquires no value save through thought and discipline.”

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind.”

“Be not afraid of life. Believe that life IS worth living and your belief will help create the fact.”

“There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.”

There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live. Surely these should never be confused in the mind of any man who has the slightest inkling of what culture is. For most of us it is essential that we should make a living...In the complications of modern life and with our increased accumulation of knowledge, it doubtless helps greatly to compress some years of experience into far fewer years by studying for a particular trade or profession in an institution; but that fact should not blind us to another—namely, that in so doing we are learning a trade or a profession, but are not getting a liberal education as human beings.

The freedom now desired by many is not freedom to do and dare but freedom from care and worry.

As we look over the list of the early leaders of the republic, Washington, John Adams, Hamilton, and others, we discern that they were all men who insisted upon being themselves and who refused to truckle to the people. With each succeeding generation, the growing demand of the people that its elective officials shall not lead but merely register the popular will has steadily undermined the independence of those who derive their power from popular election. The persistent refusal of the Adamses to sacrifice the integrity of their own intellectual and moral standards and values for the sake of winning public office or popular favor is another of the measuring rods by which we may measure the divergence of American life from its starting point.