Great necessities call out great virtues. — 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

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

Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues. — Abigail Adams

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

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. — Abigail Adams

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

I say, that Power must never be trusted without a check. — John 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

Among all the causes which degrade and demoralize men, power is the most constant and most active. — 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

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

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

No one is without their difficulties, whether in High, or low Life, & every person knows best where their own shoe pinches. — 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

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

It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. — 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

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

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

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

Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. — Abigail Adams

History is not a web woven with innocent hands. — 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

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

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

You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket. — John Adams