“Do not grieve, my friend, my dearest friend. I am ready to go. And John, it will not be long.”
Last words in a letter to John Adams, as quoted in Famous Last Words (1961) by Barnaby Conrad
Abigail Adams: Doing
Abigail Adams was 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801). Explore interesting quotes on doing.
Abigail Adams:
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Letter to John Adams (31 March 1776), published in Familiar Letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams (1875) edited by Charles Francis Adams, p. 147
Context: I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And by the way, in the the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.
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.
“To be good, and to do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words.”
Letter to Elizabeth Shaw (1784), quoted in John Adams (2001) by David McCullough, p. 310
“If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?”
Letter to John Thaxter (29 September 1778)
Cited in: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657.
https://historicipswich.org/2022/01/18/abigail-adams-to-john-adams-all-men-would-be-tyrants-if-they-could/