The Quotable Abigail Adams - Hardcover

Adams, Abigail

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9780674035324: The Quotable Abigail Adams

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674035321 ISBN 13: 9780674035324

Publisher: Belknap Press, 2009

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John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that her letters “give me more entertainment than all the speeches I hear. There is more good Thoughts, fine strokes and Mother Wit in them than I hear in the whole Week. An Ounce of Mother Wit is worth a Pound of Clergy.” The Quotable Abigail Adams invites you to enjoy Abigail Adams’s wit and wisdom on a wide range of subjects, drawn from writings throughout her lifetime. Abigail shared her penetrating and often humorous observations with correspondents ranging from friends and neighbors to family members to heads of state, offering lively opinions on human nature, politics, culture, and family life. Selected and arranged by topic, these quotations provide an entertaining introduction to the thought and character of America’s founding mother. They are accompanied by a biographical introduction, source notes, chronology, and a comprehensive index, making this book the primary resource for those meeting this remarkable woman for the first time as well as for her longtime admirers.

“The Service of this Government is not a Bed of Roses, in any department of it.”

“A Nation which does not respect itself, cannot expect to receive it from others.”

“Gentlemen are not half as particular as the Ladies are in their details.”

“No woman of sense will ever make her Husband an object of Ridicule; for in proportion as she lowers him she lessens herself.”

“A woman may forgive the man she loves an indiscretion, but never a neglect.”

“There is no musick sweeter in the Ears of parents, than the well earned praises of their children.”

“Better is a little contentment than great Treasure; and trouble therewith.”

“Time, which improves youth, every year furrows the brow of age."

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About the Author:

John P. Kaminski is Director of the Center for the Study of the American Constitution at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and editor of The Quotable Jefferson and The Founders on the Founders.

Review:

On several occasions in their correspondence John [Adams] claimed that, in his opinion, Abigail's letters were better than his. Since he himself was a master letter-writer in an age not lacking for worthy rivals (such as Jefferson and Franklin), this was quite a compliment. But over the generations many scholars have endorsed John's judgment. Though her spelling and punctuation reflect her lack of a formal education, Abigail's letters tend to be longer, more meditative, more sprinkled with literary allusions. Her roughly 2,100 letters sometimes eloquently capture her thoughts, and were usually composed at the kitchen table after the children were put to bed. Short excerpts from the letters have been gathered together by John Kaminski in The Quotable Abigail Adams, a volume designed to present Abigail as a philosopher whose epigrammatic wisdom on thirty-eight topics (e.g., war, love, foreign affairs, religion, politics) is worthy of our attention. (Joseph J. Ellis New York Review of Books 2010-12-23)

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