Quote

When men know not what to do, they ought not to do they know not what

Abigail Adams

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Abigail Adams
Age: 73 †
Born: 1744
Born: November 22
Died: 1818
Died: October 28
First Lady
Politician
Weymouth
Massachusetts
Abigail Smith
Abigail Smith Adams
Ought
Men

More quotes by Abigail Adams

Image
If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women.
Abigail Adams
Image
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
Image
If we expect to inherit the blessings of our Fathers, we should return a little more to their primitive Simplicity of Manners.
Abigail Adams
Image
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
Image
Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your sex.
Abigail Adams
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.
Abigail Adams
Image
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
Image
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
Image
A little of what you call frippery is very necessary towards looking like the rest of the world.
Abigail Adams
Image
To be good, and do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words.
Abigail Adams
Image
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence.
Abigail Adams
Image
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
Image
The house shakes...with the roar of the cannon. No sleep for me tonight.
Abigail Adams
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
My Dear Son... remember that you are accountable to your Maker for all your words and actions.
Abigail Adams
Image
posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors.
Abigail Adams