Reading Practice: Who Was Abigail Adams?
Or
Read a book about Abigail Adams, such as:
Several inspirational quotes by Abigail Adams:
- "Remember
the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your
ancestors."
- Explanation: This famous
quote is from a letter to her husband, John Adams, in 1776. Abigail Adams
urged her husband and other members of the Continental Congress to
consider women's rights in the new laws of the United States. It
highlights her early advocacy for gender equality.
- "Learning
is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended
to with diligence."
- Explanation: This quote
reflects Abigail Adams' belief in the importance of education and the
need for active pursuit and dedication to learning. It underscores her
own self-education and her advocacy for women's education.
- "If we
mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned
women."
- Explanation: This quote
demonstrates Abigail Adams' forward-thinking views on the role of women
in society. She believed that the education of women was crucial for a
prosperous and enlightened society.
- "Great
necessities call out great virtues."
- Explanation: In this
quote, Abigail Adams is expressing the idea that challenging times or
situations often bring out the best qualities in people. It reflects her
own experiences and observations during the turbulent times of the
American Revolution.
- "We have
too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with
them."
- Explanation: This quote
highlights Abigail Adams' belief in the importance of actions over
rhetoric. She emphasized the need for tangible actions to back up words,
a principle she applied both in her personal life and in her expectations
of others, including political leaders.
- "Do not
put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men
would be tyrants if they could."
- Explanation: Another quote
from her famous letter to John Adams, this reflects her awareness of the
potential for abuse in imbalanced power dynamics, particularly in
marriage. It was a call for legal protections for women, which was quite
progressive for her time.
- "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.'"
- Explanation: This quote
reveals Abigail Adams' skepticism about power and its tendency to
corrupt. It underscores her understanding of human nature and the
importance of checks and balances in government.