Abigail Adams quotes - page 2

Shall we be despised by foreign powers for hesitating so long at a word? (Abigail Adams)
Luxury, that baneful poison, has unstrung and enfeebled her sons. View quote
Abigail Adams
I regret the narrow contracted education of the females of my own country. View quote
Abigail Adams
Do not grieve, my friend, my dearest friend. I am ready to go. And John, it will not be long. View quote
Abigail Adams
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! View quote
Abigail Adams
I hate to complain... No one is without difficulties, whether in high or low life, and every person knows best where their own shoe pinches. View quote
Abigail Adams
It is really mortifying, sir, when a woman possessed of a common share of understanding considers the difference of education between the male and female sex, even in those families where education is attended to... Nay why should your sex wish for such a disparity in those whom they one day intend for companions and associates. Pardon me, sir, if I cannot help sometimes suspecting that this neglect arises in some measure from an ungenerous jealousy of rivals near the throne. View quote
Abigail Adams
If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women. View quote
Abigail Adams
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. View quote
Abigail Adams
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. View quote
Abigail Adams
I wish most sincerely there was not a slave in this province. (Abigail Adams)
You tell me of degrees of perfection to which human nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but at the same time lament that our admiration should arise from the scarcity of the instances. View quote
Abigail Adams
Whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives. But you must remember that arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken -. View quote
Abigail Adams
Man was made for action and for bustle too, I believe. View quote
Abigail Adams
I long to hear that you have declared an independency. View quote
Abigail Adams
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. View quote
Abigail Adams
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. View quote
Abigail Adams
If you complain of neglect of Education in sons, what shall I say with regard to daughters, who every day experience the want of it? View quote
Abigail Adams
I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life. View quote
Abigail Adams
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!” 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. You tell me of degrees of perfection to which human nature is capable of arriving, and I believe it, but at the same time lament that our admiration should arise from the scarcity of the instances. View quote
Abigail Adams
If you complain of neglect of Education in sons, what shall I say with regard to daughters, who every day experience the want of it? With regard to the Education of my own children, I find myself soon out of my depth, destitute and deficient in every part of Education. I most sincerely wish that some more liberal plan might be laid and executed for the Benefit of the rising Generation, and that our new Constitution may be distinguished for encouraging Learning and Virtue. 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 principles which are instill'd take the deepest root, great benefit must arise from literary accomplishments in women. (Abigail Adams)