ABIGAIL ADAMS QUOTES II
American First Lady (1744-1818)
Great necessities call out great virtues.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Quincy Adams, January 12, 1780
Why, my good man, thou hast the curiosity of a girl. Who could have believed, that only a slight hint would have set thy imagination agog in such a manner. And a fine encouragement I have to unravel the mystery as thou callest it. Nothing less, truly, than to be told something to my disadvantage. What an excellent reward that will be! In what court of justice didst thou learn that equity?
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, April 19, 1764
The eyes of our rulers have been closed, and a lethargy has seized almost every member. I fear a fatal security has taken possession of them. Whilst the building is in flames, they tremble at the expense of water to quench it.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, May 7, 1776
Yet it is instructive to trace the various causes, which produced the strength of one nation, and the decline and weakness of another; to learn by what arts one man has been able to subjugate millions of his fellow creatures, the motives which have put him upon action, and the causes of his success--sometimes driven by ambition and a lust of power; at other times, swallowed up by religious enthusiasms, blind bigotry, and ignorant zeal; sometimes enervated with luxury and debauched by pleasure, until the most powerful nations have become a prey and been subdued by these Sirens, when neither the number of their enemies, nor the prowess of their arms, could conquer them.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Quincy Adams, December 26, 1783
What is meat for one is not for another--no accounting for fancy.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, Aug. 14, 1776
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Quincy Adams, May 8, 1780
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.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter, Jul. 16, 1784
Patriotism in the female sex is the most disinterested of all virtues. Excluded from honors and from offices, we cannot attach ourselves to the State or Government from having held a place of eminence. Even in the freest countries our property is subject to the control and disposal of our partners, to whom the laws have given a sovereign authority. Deprived of a voice in legislation, obliged to submit to those laws which are imposed upon us, is it not sufficient to make us indifferent to the public welfare? Yet all history and every age exhibit instances of patriotic virtue in the female sex; which considering our situation equals the most heroic of yours.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, Jun. 17, 1782
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.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, November 27, 1775
You have seen power in its various forms--a benign deity, when exercised in the suppression of fraud, injustice, and tyranny, but a demon, when united with unbounded ambition--a wide-wasting fury, who has destroyed her thousands. Not an age of the world but has produced characters, to which whole human hecatombs have been sacrificed.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Quincy Adams, December 26, 1783
I can hear of the brilliant accomplishments of any of my sex with pleasure and rejoice in that liberality of sentiment which acknowledges them.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, Jun. 30, 1778
Danger, you know, sometimes makes timid men bold.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, June 22, 1775
Yet a cruel world too often injures my feelings, by wondering how a person, possessed of domestic attachments, can sacrifice them by absenting himself for years.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, December 23, 1782
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.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Quincy Adams, Dec. 26, 1783
I never view the ocean without being filled with ideas of the sublime, and am ready to break forth with the Psalmist, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; in wisdom hast thou made them all."
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter, Jul. 8, 1784
Should I draw you the picture of my heart, it would be what I hope you still would love, though it contained nothing new. The early possession you obtained there, and the absolute power you have ever maintained over it, leave not the smallest space unoccupied.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, December 23, 1782
What is the history of mighty kingdoms and nations, but a detail of the ravages and cruelties of the powerful over the weak?
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Quincy Adams, Dec. 26, 1783
Deliver me from your cold phlegmatic preachers, politicians, friends, lovers and husbands.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, August 5, 1776
My own inclinations must not be followed--to duty I sacrifice them.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, April 19, 1764
I am not conscious of any harm that I have done or wished to any mortal. I bear no malice to any being. To my enemies, if any I have, I am willing to afford assistance; therefore towards man I maintain a conscience void of offense.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, April 19, 1764