Since chess was such a painful test of intellect, it affected his emotions too much to be sport.
Adams looks forward to teaching his granddaughters about planting trees, noting that they already show inclination toward this and need only be encouraged in the naturalist pursuits he has found so he...
My countenance in my old-age does injustice to my heart. John Quincy Adams
Adams met with a convention on keeping the Sabbath and found the atmosphere surprisingly similar to that in Congress. Legalistic disputes so abounded that he found it difficult to keep order.
The author points out that, with life in provincial Washington difficult for those not of independent means, Adams and his wife undervalued the social connections that others found vital. They often m...
The life-changing encounters that John Quincy Adams made as an adolescent on his own in Stockholm began with a friendship he struck up at a bookstore.
The world shall retire from me before I shall retire from the world. John Quincy Adams
Amusement and annoyance are, perhaps, both forms of denial.
It is the doom of the Christian church to be always distracted with controversy. John Quincy Adams
Adams was in a hurry and ordered his horse drawn carriage to wait for him in front of his house. The horses were spooked before he got in the carriage, and the carriage was destroyed in an accident. P...
He had to pause for his usual misgivings.
The aging Adams delightedly describes being surrounded by books on so many different subjects that interested him as "baits on fishhooks".
John Quincy Adams, denying his sons permission to come home for college holidays for under-performance: "I would feel nothing but sorrow and shame at your presence.
Because he was suffering doubts about himself and his future, Adams may have felt comfort demeaning the behavior and the character of women.
When John Quincy Adams in the Netherlands was placed with elementary students and belittled because he did not speak Dutch, either the author or John Adams accuses school authorities of "littleness of...
Most ardent reformers are accompanied by but equal portion of dullness . John Quincy Adams
Ambition distorts even memory itself. John Quincy Adams
Quite possibly, this depressive illness was the familiar sort that grew from perfectionist expectations.
Foolish defiance was his lifelong response to being ill.
Abigail Adams is willing to risk her son's exposure to danger in Europe so that he can be at his fathers side, at an age where he can "most benefit from his father's example and precepts.
