Abigail Adams
Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could.Collection: Power
If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women.Collection: Women
Well, knowledge is a fine thing, and mother Eve thought so; but she smarted so severely for hers, that most of her daughters have been afraid of it since.Collection: Knowledge
Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.Collection: Experience
Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.Collection: Power
I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.Collection: Intelligence
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence.Collection: Learning
I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like the grave, cries, 'Give, give.'Collection: Power
Great necessities call out great virtues.Collection: Great
We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.
If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?
If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.
I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life. Man was made for action and for bustle too, I believe.
A little of what you call frippery is very necessary towards looking like the rest of the world.
Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.Collection: Perseverance
Great learning and superior abilities...will be of little value and small estimation unless virtue, honor, truth, and integrity are added to them.Collection: Integrity
Many of our disappointments and much of our unhappiness arise from our forming false notions of things and persons.Collection: Disappointment
I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could... That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend.Collection: Sex
A patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest Man without the fear of God. Is it possible that he whom no moral obligations bind, can have any real Good Will towards Men?Collection: Real
No one is without their difficulties, whether in High, or low Life, & every person knows best where their own shoe pinches.Collection: Hate
To be good, and do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words.Collection: Men
Its never to late to get back on your feet though we wont live forever make sure you accomplish what you were put here forCollection: Feet
History is not a web woven with innocent hands. Among all the causes which degrade and demoralize men, power is the most constant and most active.Collection: Men
My Dear Son... remember that you are accountable to your Maker for all your words and actions.Collection: Son
These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.Collection: Hero
If we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen and Philosophers, we should have learned women. The world perhaps would laugh at me, and accuse me of vanity, but you I know have a mind too enlarged and liberal to disregard the Sentiment. If much depends as is allowed upon the early Education of youth and the first principals which are instill'd take the deepest root, great benefit must arise from literary accomplishments in women.Collection: Hero
The habits of a vigorous mind are born in contending with difficulties.Collection: Challenges
A people may let a king fall, yet still remain a people, but if a king let his people slip from him, he is no longer a king.Collection: Kings
May your mind be thoroughly impressed with the absolute necessity of universal virtue and goodness, as the only sure road to happiness, and may you walk therein with undeviating steps.Collection: Mind
What is the history of mighty kingdoms and nations, but a detail of the ravages and cruelties of the powerful over the weak?Collection: Powerful
A people fired ... with love of their country and of liberty, a zeal for the public good, and a noble emulation of glory, will not be disheartened or dispirited by a succession of unfortunate events. But like them, may we learn by defeat the power of becoming invincible.Collection: Country
My bursting heart must find vent at my pen.Collection: Women
If we expect to inherit the blessings of our Fathers, we should return a little more to their primitive Simplicity of Manners.Collection: Father
These are the times when a genius wants to live.Collection: Genius
These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.Collection: Character
When he is wounded, I bleed. {page 262 of John Adams}Collection: Pages
Dark and sour humours, especially those which have a spice of malevolence in them, are vastly disagreeable. Such men have no music in their souls.Collection: Dark
I feel anxious for the fate of our monarchy, or democracy, or whatever is to take place. I soon get lost in a labyrinth of perplexities; but, whatever occurs, may justice and righteousness be the stability of our times, and order arise out of confusion. Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.Collection: Perseverance
The only chance for much intellectual improvement in the female sex, was to be found in the families of the educated class and in occasional intercourse with the learned.Collection: Sex
What is meat for one is not for another--no accounting for fancy.Collection: Meat
I acknowledge myself a unitarianCollection: Religion
Every object is beautiful in motion; a ship under sail, trees gently agitated with the wind, and a fine woman dancing, are three instances in pointCollection: Beautiful
The great fish swallow up the small; and he who is most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power, is as eager after the prerogatives of government.Collection: Power
I can hear of the brilliant accomplishments of any of my sex with pleasure and rejoice in that liberality of sentiment which acknowledges them.Collection: Sex
When men know not what to do, they ought not to do they know not whatCollection: Men
Heaven grant me that I may thus rejoice in my children, thus see them ornaments to their Country, and blessings to their parents.Collection: Family
The Character which a youth acquires in the early part of his Life is of great importance towards his future prosperity-one false step may prove irretrievable to his future usefulness.Collection: Character
I acknowledge myself a unitarian - Believing that the Father alone, is the supreme God, and that Jesus Christ derived his Being, and all his powers and honors from the Father. ... There is not any reasoning which can convince me, contrary to my senses, that three is one, and one three.Collection: Jesus
posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors.Collection: Blessing