Abigail Adams

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.”

“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.'”

“If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women.”