Abigail Adams Quotes - Page 2

Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could.

posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors.

When men know not what to do, they ought not to do they know not what

Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.

But let no person say what they would or would not do, since we are not judges for ourselves until circumstances call us to act.

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.

How difficult the task to quench the fire and the pride of private ambition, and to sacrifice ourselves and all our hopes and expectations to the public weal! How few have souls capable of so noble an undertaking!

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.

I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature.

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.

If we expect to inherit the blessings of our Fathers, we should return a little more to their primitive Simplicity of Manners.

Heaven grant me that I may thus rejoice in my children, thus see them ornaments to their Country, and blessings to their parents.

Let your observations and comparisons produce in your mind an abhorrence of domination and power, the parent of slavery, ignorance, and barbarism, which places man upon a level with his fellow tenants of the woods.

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.

What is it that affectionate parents require of their Children; for all their care, anxiety, and toil on their accounts? Only that they would be wise and virtuous, Benevolent and kind.

I hope some future day will bring me the happiness of seeing my family again collected under our own roof, happy in ourselves and blessed in each other.

The reins of government have been so long slackened, that I fear the people will not quietly submit to those restraints which are necessary for the peace and security of the community.

Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.

Deliver me from your cold phlegmatic preachers, politicians, friends, lovers and husbands.

You cannot know, should I discribe to you; the feelings of a parent . . . . Four years have already past away since you left your native land, and this rural Cottage-Humble indeed, when compared to the Palaces you have visited, and the pomp you have been witness to. But I dare say you have not been so inattentive an observer, as to suppose that Sweet peace, and contentment, cannot inhabit the lowly roof, and bless the tranquil inhabitants, equally guarded and protected, in person and property, in this happy Country, as those who reside in the most elegant and costly dwellings.

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.'

It is to me a most affecting thing to hear myself prayed for, in particular as I do every day in the week, and disposes me to bear with more composure, some disagreeable circumstances that attend my situation.

These are the times when a genius wants to live.

A little of what you call frippery is very necessary towards looking like the rest of the world.

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.