MEN

'That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity. Men of sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex. Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness.'

Abigail Adams in My Dearest Friend, p.110.

FREEDOM

'Did ever any Kingdom or State regain liberty, when once it was invaded without Blood Shed?

Abigail Adams in Hogan & Taylor (Ed.), My Dearest Friend, p.38.

CHARACTER

'It is not in the still calm of life, or 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 a 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 in David McCullough, John Adams, p.226.