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letter   |  january 12, 1780

Letters of Mrs. Adams, the wife of John Adams

along these lines...
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” Helen Keller humanitarian
Abigail's letter to son John Quincy Adams none

stepping up

Portrait of Abigail none
kudos to #citeseer Sydney Morgan for submitting this quote to Quotabelle

Abigail's letter to son John Quincy Adams

In her letter to her son {and future president}, Abigail tells him that now are the days that a genius would wish to live ~ written 4 years after the Revolution while he was on a diplomatic mission abroad with his father. She writes, "It is not in the still calm of life, of the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed . . . when a mind is raised and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities, which would otherwise lie dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman."

public domain |

Portrait of Abigail

Benjamin Blythe | public domain |