Abigail Adams Quotes

79 Sourced Quotes

If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women.... If much depends as is allowed upon the early education of youth and the first principles which are instilled take the deepest root, great benefit must arise from literary accomplishments in women.

Abigail Adams
I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life. 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. Man was made for action and for bustle too, I believe.

Abigail Adams
These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in 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 the 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
A little of what you call frippery is very necessary towards looking like the rest of the world.

Abigail Adams
In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make 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.

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

Abigail Adams
How is it possible, that the love of gain and the lust of domination should render the human mind so callous to every principle of honor, generosity and benevolence?

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
There is nothing that enlivens us so much as having these little creatures round us —

Abigail Adams
How many have fallen, we know not. The constant roar of the cannon is so distressing that we cannot eat, drink, or sleep.... The spirit of the people are very good; the loss of Charlestown affects them no more than a drop in the bucket.

Abigail Adams
Any pilot may Navigate in smooth water. He who can conduct a Ship in a Storm, tho he has harder labour, will feel more Satisfaction when he reflects, that his Labours have largely contributed to her Safety.

Abigail Adams
May we... be as ready to do justice as to receive it.

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

Abigail Adams
Anticipated evils have often as much power over the mind as real ones. To guard against this imbecility of the mind an ancient Author observes 'that sufficient unto the day was the Evil thereof.'

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

Abigail Adams
The expense of living abroad, I always supposed to be high, but my ideas were nowise adequate to the thing.

Abigail Adams
Whenever you come to have Grandchildren, you will scarcly know any difference between them & your own children, particularly if you should be under the same roof with them.

Abigail Adams
I have seen and known that much of the conduct of a public ruler, is liable to be misunderstood and misrepresented.

Abigail Adams
Life takes its complexion from inferior things. It is little attentions and assiduities that sweeten the bitter draught and smooth the rugged road.

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
William must continue to write. Tell him it is a habit the pleasure of which increases with practice, but becomes more irksome with neglect.

Abigail Adams
I detest still life — and had rather be jostled, than inanimate.

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.

Abigail Adams