Leadership Quote by John Quincy Adams

Adams doesn’t romanticize liberty here; he treats it like a garden that dies the moment you stop weeding. “Shoots” is the key image: arbitrary power doesn’t arrive as a crowned tyrant, it sprouts as small permissions, procedural shortcuts, “temporary” measures, and convenient exceptions. By the time it looks like a tree, it has roots in habit, bureaucracy, and public fatigue. “Nip...in the bud” is a demand for early, almost reflexive resistance before abuses can normalize themselves.

The phrase “arbitrary power” carries the heavier warning. It’s not simply power that’s strong; it’s power untethered from rules, transparency, and accountability. Adams is arguing that the true enemy of a republic isn’t only a bad actor, but a style of governing where discretion replaces law and leaders substitute personal judgment for shared constraints. That kind of authority can wear patriotic clothing and still be poison.

Calling this “the only maxim” strips away comforting alternatives. No amount of national pride, constitutional text, or enlightened leadership will save a people who tolerate incremental overreach. The burden shifts from institutions to citizens: vigilance isn’t a mood, it’s a practice.

Context matters: Adams grew up inside the revolution’s aftermath and spent his life watching nations slide from republican ideals into factionalism, executive swagger, and security-driven clampdowns. His maxim reads like an early diagnosis of democratic backsliding: liberties aren’t usually overthrown; they’re edited down, one “shoot” at a time.