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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

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Abigail Adams
Age: 73 †
Born: 1744
Born: November 22
Died: 1818
Died: October 28
First Lady
Politician
Weymouth
Massachusetts
Abigail Smith
Abigail Smith Adams
People
Eager
Fish
Fishes
Small
Prerogatives
Rights
Strenuous
Power
Vested
Government
Prerogative
Great
Swallow

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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.
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Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your sex.
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Great necessities call out great virtues.
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Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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What is the history of mighty kingdoms and nations, but a detail of the ravages and cruelties of the powerful over the weak?
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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.
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These are the times when a genius wants to live.
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posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors.
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A little of what you call frippery is very necessary towards looking like the rest of the world.
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Heaven grant me that I may thus rejoice in my children, thus see them ornaments to their Country, and blessings to their parents.
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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.
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Many of our disappointments and much of our unhappiness arise from our forming false notions of things and persons.
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Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could.
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O, I have read his Heart in his wicked eyes many a time. The very devil is in them.
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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.
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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?
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