Admire and adore the Author of the telescopic universe, love and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen ill, and increase good, but never assume to comprehend.
John AdamsRead
It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of nurturing and empowering children to develop strong values and ambitions.
In this quote, John Adams speaks to the responsibility adults have in guiding and uplifting children. He advocates for fostering a mindset in children that not only encourages them to develop their virtues, ambitions, and faculties but also instills in them a strong disdain for mediocrity, injustice, and cruelty. Adams warns that if children are not encouraged to strive for greatness from a young age, they may remain stagnant and fail to realize their full potential throughout their lives.
Themes
ChildrenEducationCourageAmbitionValues
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech encouraging young leaders to reach their potential.
More from John Adams
All quotes →Property monopolized or in the possession of a few is a curse to mankind.
John AdamsRead
Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.
John AdamsRead
There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.
John AdamsRead
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John AdamsRead
The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals.
John AdamsRead
Similar quotes
In my situation, every time I write a sentence, I'm thinking not only of the people I ended up in college with but my siblings, my family, my school friends, the people from my neighborhood. I've come to realize that this is an advantage, really: it keeps you on your toes.
Zadie SmithRead
That's what I tell my students at California Institute of the Arts where I taught for 27 years. I taught them if you strive to be a good person, maybe you might become a great jazz musician.
Charlie HadenRead
On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy.
David OgilvyRead
Rather, very, little, pretty - these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. The constant use of the adjective little (except to indicate size) is particularly debilitating; we should all try to do a little better, we should all be very watchful of this rule, for it is a rather important one, and we are pretty sure to violate it now and then.
William Strunk, Jr.Read
We light the oven so that everyone may bake bread in it.
Jose MartiRead
Boys' brains are being digitally rewired for change, novelty, excitement and constant arousal. That means they're totally out of sync in traditional classes, which are analog, static, interactively passive.
Philip ZimbardoRead