Quotes by Abigail Adams

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.

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.

We have too many high sounding words and too few actions that correspond with them.

But the heavy stroke which most of all distresses me is my dear Mother. I cannot overcome my too selfish sorrow, all her tenderness towards me, her care and anxiety for my welfare at all times, her watchfulness over my infant years, her advice and instruction in maturer age; all, all indear her memory to me, and highten my sorrow for her loss. At the same time I know a patient submission is my Duty. I will strive to obtain it! But the lenient hand of time alone can blunt the keen Edg of Sorrow. He who deignd to weep over a departed Friend, will surely forgive a sorrow which at all times desires to be bounded and restrained, by a firm Belief that a Being of infinite wisdom and unbounded Goodness, will carve out my portion in tender mercy towards me! Yea tho he slay me I will trust in him said holy Job. What tho his corrective Hand hath been streached against me; I will not murmer. Tho earthly comforts are taken away I will not repine, he who gave them has surely a right to limit their Duration, and has continued them to me much longer than deserved. I might have been striped of my children as many others have been. I might o! forbid it Heaven, I might have been left a solitary widow. Still I have many blessing left, many comforts to be thankfull for, and rejoice in. I am not left to mourn as one without hope. My dear parent knew in whom she had Believed...The violence of her disease soon weakned her so that she was unable to converse, but whenever she could speak, she testified her willingness to leave the world and an intire resignation to the Divine Will. She retaind her Senses to the last moment of her Existance, and departed the world with an easy tranquility, trusting in the merrits of a Redeamer, (p. 81 & 82).

We are not judges for ourselves until circumstances call us to act.

The theater has been called the pulse of the people.

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.

Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.

From her character in the HBO miniseries: The art of politics is the art of applying the seat of the britches to the seat of the chair.

The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties.

It is not in the still calm of life or the repose of a pacific station that great characters are formed. ... Great necessities call out great virtues.

We have too many sounding words and too few actions that correspond with them.

Ive always felt that a persons intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Great necessities call out great virtues.