Abigail Adams Quotes & Sayings

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. — Abigail Adams

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

Great necessities call out great virtues. — 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! — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

When he is wounded, I bleed. {page 262 of John Adams} — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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

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. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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. — 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.' — Abigail Adams

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? — Abigail Adams

Posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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

Its never to late to get back on your feet though we wont live forever make sure you accomplish what you were put here for — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

The habits of a vigorous mind are born in contending with difficulties. — Abigail Adams

My Dear Son ... remember that you are accountable to your Maker for all your words and actions. — 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. — Abigail Adams

Great learning and superior abilities ... will be of little value and small estimation unless virtue, honor, truth, and integrity are added to them. — Abigail Adams

The natural tenderness and delicacy of our constitution, added to the many dangers we are subject to from your sex, renders it almost impossible for a single lady to travel without injury to her character. And those who have a protector in a husband have, generally speaking, obstacles to prevent their roving. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your sex. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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 point — Abigail Adams

These are the times when a genius wants to live. — Abigail Adams

You tell me that you sometimes view the dark side of your Diana, and there no doubt you discover many Spots which I rather wish were erased, than conceal'd from you. Do not judge by this, that your opinion is an indifferent thing to me, (were it so, I should look forward with a heavey Heart,) but it is far otherways, for I had rather stand fair there, and be thought well of by Lysander than by the greater part of the World besides. I would fain hope that those faults which you discover, proceed more, from a wrong Head, than a bad Heart. E'er long May I be connected with a Friend from whose Example I may form a more faultless conduct, and whose benevolent mind will lead him to pardon, what he cannot amend. — 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. — Abigail Adams

The house shakes ... with the roar of the cannon. No sleep for me tonight. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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

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. — 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. — Abigail Adams

Remember the Ladies. — Abigail Adams

To be good, and do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words. — Abigail Adams

The theater has been called the pulse of the people. — Abigail Adams

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

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence. — Abigail Adams

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

Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance. — Abigail Adams

If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve? — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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

Many of our disappointments and much of our unhappiness arise from our forming false notions of things and persons. — Abigail Adams

What is meat for one is not for another
no accounting for fancy. — Abigail Adams

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

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

O, I have read his Heart in his wicked eyes many a time. The very devil is in them. — Abigail Adams

The heart is long, very long in receiving the convictions that is forced upon it by reason ... affection still lingers in the Bosom, even after esteem has taken its flight. — Abigail Adams

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

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

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. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams

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. — Abigail Adams