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

Last update June 13, 2021. History

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Abigail Adams 40
2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801) 1744–1818

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This seems to first appear in Why Leaders Can't Lead : The Unconscious Conspiracy Continues (1989) by Warren G. Bennis, p. 159, where it is cited as being from a letter to Thomas Jefferson, but it might be a misquote of "Great necessities call out great virtues" stated in a letter to her son John Quincy Adams (19 January 1780)
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“And add to these retired Leisure,
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“Irony is a great help in helping to penetrate fraudulent language.”

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